Word: bilious
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Dates: during 1890-1899
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...humour and its derivation. It was derived from the Latin root meaning moistur and during the Middle Ages came to be applied in the plural to the moistures or juices which on old medical authority made up the constitution of a human being, as bile or phlegm. So a bilious or phlegmatic humour came to mean a certain character or state. This was the sense in which Jonson used "humour," in the play "Every Man out of his Humour...