humour: [14] Latin hūmēre meant ‘be moist’ (from it was derived hūmidus, source of English humid [16]). And related to it was the noun hūmor, which signified originally simply ‘liquid’. In due course it came to be applied specifically to any of the four bodily fluids (blood, phlegm, choler, and black bile) whose combinations according to medieval theories of physiology determined a person’s general health and temperament.
This was the sense in which English acquired the word, via Anglo-Norman humour, and it gradually developed in meaning via ‘mental disposition at a particular time, mood’ and ‘inclination, whim’ to, in the late 17th century, the main modern sense ‘funniness’. => humid
humour
chiefly British English spelling of humor; see -or. Related: Humourous; humourist.
权威例句
1. There is a wry sense of humour in his work.
他的作品带有一种讽刺意味的幽默。
2. Sharon tells the story of that night with self-deprecating humour.
沙伦以幽默自嘲的口吻讲述那一夜的故事。
3. Hugo bore his illness with great courage and good humour.
雨果以巨大的勇气和良好的精神状态面对疾病。
4. This comedy of contemporary manners is told with compassion and acid humour.
这部当代风尚喜剧杂糅了悲悯的情怀和尖酸的幽默。
5. This book is suffused with Shaw's characteristic wry Irish humour.