yellow bile

American  

noun

1. one of the four elemental bodily humors of medieval physiology, regarded as causing anger; choler.

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yellow bile British  

noun

1. archaic one of the four bodily humours, choler

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Etymology

Origin of yellow bile

First recorded in 1880–85

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

yellow bile

The four-humors theory—that illness came from imbalances in blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile—was “common sense” to them.

From Slate ● Sep. 26, 2025

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

Phlegm, blood and yellow bile were all thought to rule human bodies and behaviors, affecting everything from attitude to interests and fueling disease.

From Washington Post ● Nov. 7, 2022

Galen, the Greco-Roman physician of the second century, argued that all human pathology could be conceptualized as imbalances of humors—black bile, yellow bile, blood, and phlegm.

From The New Yorker ● Jul. 15, 2019

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