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Glite Dictionary
yellow bile

yellow bile

1 9.9
An old medical idea that a fluid from the liver makes people angry
  • noun
  • /ˈjɛloʊ baɪl/
  • Archaic
: bilis amarilla
  • In ancient medicine, an excess of yellow bile was thought to lead to irritability and anger.
  • yellow bile and phlegm
  • yellow bile and black bile
  • yellow bile and blood

But the medical science at that time was still the four humors theory that people were made of yellow bile, black bile, blood and phlegm.

Examples

  • The theory of humors stated that an imbalance in yellow bile contributed to emotional instability.

  • Physicians in the past believed that yellow bile could cause a choleric temperament in patients.

  • I find myself vomiting, stream upon stream of thick yellow bile.

    Academic text (2011)

  • So you've got blood, phlegm, yellow bile and black bile.

  • She looked down at the cloth, at the stringing blood mixed with yellow bile, and folded it to a new place.

    Fiction book (1999)

  • Those who had too much black bile were melancholic, while those with an excess of yellow bile were choleric, predisposed to anger.

    Academic text (2000)

  • Humoralism is the belief that health is dictated by the relative balance of four bodily humors: blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile.

    Blog text (16)

  • In ancient Greece, physicians agreed on the humoral theory; when the four humors—blood, phlegm, black bile, and yellow bile—in the human body were in balance, good health was guaranteed.

    Academic text (2015)

Synonyms

choler
vsyellow bile
  • Archaic
9.9

An old belief that a liquid in the body made people easily angry

has identical meaning but is an alternative historical term

Surface Forms

yellow bile singular
yellow biles plural

Morphology

yellow + bile

The compound literally denotes 'a yellow bodily fluid' so learners who know 'yellow' and 'bile' can infer it refers to a kind of bodily secretion. However, the specialized historical/medical sense linking it to the humoral theory and to irritability/anger is cultural knowledge not derivable from the constituents alone, making the meaning only partly predictable.

Etymology

Yellow bile comes from old medicine. Ancient doctors believed a yellow fluid called bile from the liver made people quick to anger, so yellow bile came to mean 'irritability' or 'anger'.