black bile

American  

noun

1. one of the four elemental bodily humors of medieval physiology, regarded as causing gloominess.

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black bile British  

noun

1. archaic one of the four bodily humours; melancholy See humour

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Etymology

Origin of black bile

First recorded in 1790–1800

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

black bile

Take humoral theory: In the Middle Ages, the body was thought to consist of four liquid components called humors—blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm.

From National Geographic ● Nov. 29, 2023

There’s Katharine Minola of “The Taming of the Shrew,” a sharp-tongued woman thought to have too much choler, the melancholic Ophelia of “Hamlet,” whose melancholia demonstrated an excess of black bile, and more.

From Washington Post ● Nov. 7, 2022

“I think a toxic, black bile comes out every time you say something like that.”

From New York Times ● May 19, 2021

The ancient Greeks, for example, believed mental disorders arose when the digestive tract produced too much black bile.

From Science Magazine ● May 7, 2020

This theory, which goes back to the ancient Greeks, declares that health is maintained by a balance of four liquids, or humors, in the body—blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile.

From "Phineas Gage" by John Fleischman