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

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

Mr. Georgiou was covered in weeping sores and black bile dribbled from his nostrils, but he was still the person who'd helped us ever since we'd opened the deli.

From "City of the Plague God" by Sarwat Chadda