humor

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /hjuː.mə(ɹ)/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈhjuːmɚ/, /ˈjuːmɚ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Hyphenation: hu‧mor
• Rhymes: -uːmə(ɹ)

Noun

humor (usually uncountable, plural humors)

1. US spelling of humour

   He was in a particularly vile humor that afternoon.

   • 1763, Antoine-Simon Le Page du Pratz, History of Louisiana, PG, page 40:

     For some days a fistula lacrymalis had come into my left eye, which discharged an humour, when pressed, that portended danger.

   • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter VIII, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:

     The humor of my proposition appealed more strongly to Miss Trevor than I had looked for, and from that time forward she became her old self again; for, even after she had conquered her love for the Celebrity, the mortification of having been jilted by him remained.

   • 1987, Gerald Ford, “What's So Funny About the Presidency?”, in Humor and the Presidency‎, New York: Arbor House, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 15:

     There are two ways to become an authority on humor. The first way is to be one of the perpetrators. You know them: comedians, satirists, cartoonists, and impersonators. The second way to gain such credentials is to be the victim of their merciless talents. As such a victim, I take a backseat to no one as far as humor is concerned.

Verb

humor (third-person singular simple present humors, present participle humoring, simple past and past participle humored)

1. US spelling of humour

   I know you don't believe my story, but humor me for a minute and imagine it to be true.

Further reading

• Humour on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Humorism on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• “humor”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “humor”, in The Century Dictionary , New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “humor”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Anagrams

• mohur

Asturian

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin hūmor, hūmōrem.

Noun

humor m (plural humores)

1. mood (mental state)
2. humour

Catalan

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin hūmōrem.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central)
• IPA^(key): (Balearic)
• IPA^(key): (Valencian)

Noun

humor m or (archaic, regional or poetic) f (plural humors)

1. humour

Derived terms

• humorós

Related terms

• humit

Czech

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key):

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

humor m inan

1. humor (US), humour (UK) (source of amusement)

Declension

Derived terms

Further reading

• humor in Příruční slovník jazyka českého, 1935–1957
• humor in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého, 1960–1971, 1989

Danish

Etymology

From Latin (h)ūmor (“fluid”). Doublet of humør (“spirits, mood”). The modern use of this word for mental processes goes back to Ancient and Medieval theories about the four fluids of the body.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /huːmɔr/,

Noun

humor c (singular definite humoren, not used in plural form)

1. humour (amusement and the sense of amusement)

Declension

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from English humor (US), from Old French humor (“bodily fluid”), from Latin hūmor. Doublet of humeur (“mood, mental state”).

The meaning of humor as in "a sense of amusement" entered Dutch from the US spelling of humour around ~1839.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɦymɔr/

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: hu‧mor

Noun

humor m (plural humoren or humores)

1. (uncountable) humour (sense of amusement)
2. (countable, archaic) humour (bodily fluid)

Related terms

Hungarian

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin hūmor.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key):

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: hu‧mor
• Rhymes: -or

Noun

humor (plural humorok)

1. humour, humor (the quality of being amusing, comical, or funny)

Declension

Derived terms

Related terms

References

Further reading

• humor in Bárczi, Géza and László Országh. A magyar nyelv értelmező szótára (‘The Explanatory Dictionary of the Hungarian Language’, abbr.: ÉrtSz.). Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1959–1962. Fifth ed., 1992: →ISBN

Latin

Etymology 1

Alternative spelling of ūmor found in the later Roman Empire, when the letter h had already become silent. See also the related hūmidus.

Alternative forms

• ūmor

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈhuː.mor/,
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈu.mor/,
• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈuː.mor/,
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈu.mor/,

Noun

hūmor m (genitive hūmōris); third declension

1. liquid, fluid, humour

Declension

Third-declension noun.

Derived terms

Descendants

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈhu.mor/,
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈu.mor/,

Verb

humor

1. first-person singular present passive indicative of humō

References

• “humor”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “humor”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers

Middle English

Noun

humor

1. Alternative form of humour

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From Latin hūmor, via German Humor and English humour or humor.

Noun

humor m (definite singular humoren)

1. humour (UK) or humor (US)

Derived terms

• galgenhumor

References

• “humor” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

From Latin hūmor, via German Humor and English humour or humor.

Noun

humor m (definite singular humoren)

1. humor (US) or humour (UK)

Derived terms

• galgenhumor

References

• “humor” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Old French

Alternative forms

• humour (less common)

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin hūmor, hūmōrem.

Noun

humor m or f

1. humor (one of four fluids that were believed to control the health and mood of the human body)

Descendants

• French: humeur
  • → Danish: humør
  • → Romanian: umoare
  • → Swedish: humör
• → Middle Dutch: humuere
  • Dutch: humeur
    • Negerhollands: humeer
    • → Papiamentu: himeur (dated)
• → Middle English: humour, humore, umour, humor, humur, humer
  • English: humour, humor
    • →⇒ Chinese:

      Cantonese: 幽默 (jau¹ mak⁶)

      Mandarin: 幽默 (yōumò)

    • → Danish: humor
      • → Icelandic: húmor
    • → Dutch: humor
    • → Esperanto: humuro
    • → French: humour
      • → Romanian: humor, umor
      • → Turkish: humor
    • → German: Humor (semantic loan)
      • → Polish: humor
      • → Yiddish: הומאָר (humor) (probably)
    • → Greek: χιούμορ (chioúmor)
    • → Italian: humour
    • → Japanese: ユーモア (yūmoa)
    • → Korean: 유머 (yumeo)
    • → Norwegian: (also via German)

      Bokmål: humor

      Nynorsk: humor

    • → Russian: ю́мор (júmor)
      • → Azerbaijani: yumor
    • → Serbo-Croatian:

      Cyrillic script: ху̀мор

      Latin script: hùmor

    • → Swedish: humor (semantic loan)
  • Scots: humour

Polish

Etymology

Borrowed from German Humor, ultimately from Latin hūmor. See humor for more.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈxu.mɔr/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -umɔr
• Syllabification: hu‧mor

Noun

humor m inan

1. humour
2. mood (mental state)

Declension

Further reading

• humor in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• humor in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Portuguese

Etymology

From Old Galician-Portuguese umor, humor, borrowed from Latin hūmōrem (“humour, fluid”).

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: (Portugal, São Paulo) -oɾ, (Brazil) -oʁ
• Hyphenation: hu‧mor

Noun

humor m (plural humores)

1. mood (mental state)

   Synonyms: disposição, espírito, temperamento

2. humour; bodily fluid
3. (historical) humour (one of the four basic bodily fluids in humourism)

   Hyponyms: bile amarela, bile negra, fleuma, sangue

4. humour (quality of being comical)

   Synonyms: comédia, comicidade, graça

Quotations

For quotations using this term, see Citations:humor.

Derived terms

Related terms

Romanian

Noun

humor n (plural humoare)

1. Alternative form of umor

Declension

Serbo-Croatian

Etymology

Borrowed from English humor, from Latin hūmor.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /xǔmor/
• Hyphenation: hu‧mor

Noun

hùmor m (Cyrillic spelling ху̀мор)

1. (uncountable) humor

Declension

Spanish

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin hūmōrem. Cognate with English humor.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /uˈmoɾ/
• Rhymes: -oɾ
• Syllabification: hu‧mor

Noun

humor m (plural humores)

1. mood

   estar de buen humor ― to be in a good mood

2. humor

   un sentido del humor ― a sense of humor

Derived terms

Related terms

Further reading

• “humor”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014

Swedish

Etymology

Originally from Latin hūmor (“fluid”), having bodily fluids in good balance, as used in humör (“mood, temper”). The joking sense was derived in England in Shakespeare's time and has been used in Swedish since 1812.

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

humor c

1. humour (a sense of making jokes)

Declension

Related terms

References

• humor, humör in Elof Hellquist, Svensk etymologisk ordbok (1st ed., 1922)
• humor in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)