humour

humour 是英式英语中从“体液、情绪”发展出的词：最常见的是“幽默感”，也可指心情，动词则表示顺着某人的情绪或要求。

💡 记忆钩子

把 humour 想成身体里流动的“液体”：古人认为体液会影响人的心情，于是它先表示“情绪”，再引申出让人发笑的“幽默”；动词 humour someone 则是顺着对方当下的情绪或任性要求。医学中的眼内液体仍保留了最早的“液体”这条线索。

📝 学习建议

先掌握“幽默”和“心情”两个名词义，再记动词“迁就、顺着”；不要把动词理解成“使某人变得幽默”。
注意这是英式拼写；美式英语通常写作 humor。名词不只表示“幽默”，在较旧或文学语境中也可能表示“情绪”。

📖 中文释义

noun

core 幽默感

📖 指让人觉得有趣、好笑的特点，也可以指一个人理解和欣赏玩笑的能力；这里就是从“情绪”发展出的轻松、逗笑的一面。

💡 常用结构是 have a sense of humour、a good sense of humour 或 see the humour in something。这个意义通常不可数，不能把它当作一个具体的笑话来数；谈论人的性格时很常见，正式和日常语境都能用。

UK uncountable usually

My new colleague has a great sense of humour.

我的新同事很有幽默感。
common 心情；情绪

📖 指人在某一段时间里的心情或情绪，尤其常指坏心情，也可以指突然产生的任性念头；它保留了“体液影响情绪”的古老观念。

💡 常用结构是 be in a good/bad/vile humour，表示处于某种心情。这个意义通常不可数，主要见于英式英语，语气比 mood 更旧式或更文学；不要把它和表示“幽默感”的 humour 混为一谈。

UK uncountable usually

He was in a bad humour after the long meeting.

长时间的会议结束后，他心情很差。
rare 体液

📖 古代医学中指人体内被认为会影响健康和情绪的液体，尤其是所谓的四种体液；这是“液体”本义在历史医学中的保留。

UK archaic historical uncountable usually
common 眼内液

📖 医学上指眼球内部的液体，主要包括房水和玻璃体；这是“液体”本义在现代医学术语中的专门用法。

💡 通常出现在医学搭配 aqueous humour 和 vitreous humour 中，分别指房水和玻璃体。这个意义是不可数的专业名词，日常谈话中一般不用单独的 humour 来表示眼内液。

UK uncountable usually

The doctor found pressure building up in the aqueous humour.

医生发现房水中的压力正在升高。
rare 湿气；水汽

📖 指潮湿的水汽或湿气，是“液体、湿润物”这条古老词义在过时用法中的残留。

UK obsolete uncountable usually

humours plural

verb

core 迁就；顺着

📖 指顺着某人的情绪、想法或任性要求，让对方暂时满意；它把名词“心情”发展成了“照顾这种心情”的动作。

💡 常用句型是 humour me，意思是“先顺着我一下”，也可说 humour someone by doing something。它通常带有暂时配合、并不一定真正相信或赞同的含义；不要把宾语漏掉，因为这个动词通常需要直接接人。

UK transitive

Humour me and check the figures one more time.

先顺着我一下，再检查一遍这些数字。

humours present,singular,third-person humouring participle,present humoured participle,past humoured past

📘 英文释义 (WordNet) 共 7 组

put into a good mood

同义词集: humor humour

上位: gratify, indulge, pander

the trait of appreciating (and being able to express) the humorous;

同义词集: humor humour sense of humor sense of humour

she didn't appreciate my humor

you can't survive in the army without a sense of humor

上位: fun, playfulness

the quality of being funny

同义词集: humor humour

I fail to see the humor in it

上位: quality

the liquid parts of the body

同义词集: liquid body substance bodily fluid body fluid humor humour

下位: amnionic fluid, amniotic fluid, black bile, blood, blood serum, come, cum, ejaculate, festering, ichor, ink, juice, lymph, melancholy, milk, purulence, pus, sanies, secretion, seed, semen, seminal fluid, serum, succus, suppuration, waters

(Middle Ages) one of the four fluids in the body whose balance was believed to determine your emotional and physical state

同义词集: humor humour

the humors are blood and phlegm and yellow and black bile

a message whose ingenuity or verbal skill or incongruity has the power to evoke laughter

同义词集: wit humor humour witticism wittiness

上位: content, message, subject matter, substance 下位: bite, bon mot, caricature, cartoon, caustic remark, fun, gag, imitation, impersonation, irony, jape, jest, joke, laugh, mot, play, pungency, sarcasm, satire, sketch, sport, topper

a characteristic (habitual or relatively temporary) state of feeling;

同义词集: temper mood humor humour

whether he praised or cursed me depended on his temper at the time

he was in a bad humor

上位: feeling 下位: peeve

🌳 词源

源自拉丁语中表示“液体”的词，后来受古代“四体液”学说影响，产生“情绪”之义，再发展出“幽默”和“迁就情绪”等意思。

From Middle English humour, from Old French humor, humour, from Latin hūmor, correctly ūmor (“liquid”), from hūmeō, correctly ūmeō (“to be moist”). The h in these words, which was silent in late Classical Latin, is folk etymological, due to the erroneous association with the word humus (“soil”). The shift in meaning "liquid" > "mood" is attributed to the classical system of physiology, where human behaviour is regulated by four bodily humours (fluids). The sense "mood" gave rise to the verb sense "to give in to someone's mood or whim" and, by narrowing of meaning, the sense "wit".

🔄 变式

humoured past humouring present humours plural

🏷 单词标签 & 词根