choler
9.9
An old belief that a liquid in the body made people easily angry
- noun
- /ˈkɒlər/
- Archaic
:
cólera
- In ancient medicine, too much choler was thought to lead to aggressive behavior.
Examples
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Your wisdom should show itself richer to signify this to the doctor, for for me to put him to his purgation would perhaps plunge him into more choler.
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The poet described his temper as affected by an excess of choler.
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Doctors in the past believed an imbalance of choler could cause a person's irritability.
Synonyms
1
9.9
An old medical idea that a fluid from the liver makes people angry
is the same concept but expressed as a single archaic word
Surface Forms
Etymology
Choler was the name for one of the old medical 'humors' and comes from the Greek cholé, meaning 'bile'. Doctors believed the liver made this 'bile' and that too much of it made a person hot-tempered, so choler meant an excess of anger in medicine of the past.