yellow bile

noun

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

yellow bile

noun

1. archaic,  one of the four bodily humours, choler

Word History and Origins

Origin of yellow bile¹

First recorded in 1880–85

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.

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A hot and dry person was thought to be choleric and ruled by yellow bile, associated with childhood and summer.

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In a skeleton drawing of a galumphing, long-gone dodo, a litany of bodily and emotional states, including guilt and yellow bile, is interwoven with attempts to cope — witchcraft, too much sex, strong imagination and more.

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The Greek physician Hippocrates believed that people’s personalities were governed by the amounts of phlegm, blood, black bile and yellow bile that flowed through their bodies.

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The human body contained four viscous liquids or “humors”: phlegm, blood, yellow bile and black bile.

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