different between wry vs humour

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?a?/
• Rhymes: -a?
• Homophone: rye

Etymology 1

From Middle English wrien, from Old English wr??ian (“to go, turn, twist, bend, strive, struggle, press forward, endeavor, venture”), from Proto-Germanic *wrig?n? (“to wriggle”), from Proto-Indo-European *wrey?- (“to turn, wrap, tie”), from *wer- (“to turn, bend”). Compare awry, wriggle.

Adjective

wry (comparative wrier or wryer, superlative wriest or wryest)

1. Turned away, contorted (of the face or body).
   • 1837, Charles Dickens, The Pickwick Papers, chapter 17:

     '"Why, you snivelling, wry-faced, puny villain," gasped old Lobbs.

   • 1913, Victor Appleton, The Motion Picture Chums at Seaside Park, chapter 11:

     “Humph! Had to,” said Pep with a wry grimace.

2. Dryly humorous; sardonic or bitterly ironic.
   • 1871, Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, The Haunted Baronet, chapter 6:

     "[T]he master says a wry word now and then; and so ye let your spirits go down, don't ye see, and all sorts o' fancies comes into your head."

3. Twisted, bent, crooked.
4. Deviating from the right direction; misdirected; out of place.
   • 1820, Sir Walter Scott, The Abbot, chapter 34:

     Catherine hath made a wry stitch in her broidery, when she was thinking of something else than her work.

   • 1876, Walter Savage Landor, The Works and Life of Walter Savage Landor, volume IV, Imaginary Conversations, Third Series: Dialogues of Literary Men, ch. 6—Milton and Andrew Marvel, page 155 (Google preview):

     . . . the wry rigour of our neighbours, who never take up an old idea without some extravagance in its application.

Derived terms

• awry
• wryly
• go awry

Translations

Verb

wry (third-person singular simple present wries, present participle wrying, simple past and past participle wried)

1. (obsolete, intransitive) To turn (away); to swerve or deviate.
   • 1535, Thomas More, Dialogue of Comfort Against Tribulation, ch. 18:

     God pricketh them of his great goodness still. And the grief of this great pang pincheth them at the heart, and of wickedness they wry away.

   • c. 1610, William Shakespeare, Cymbeline, act 5, scene 1:

     You married ones,

     If each of you should take this course, how many

     Must murder wives much better than themselves

     For wrying but a little!

2. (obsolete, transitive) To divert; to cause to turn away.
3. (transitive) To twist or contort (the body, face, etc.).

Translations

Noun

wry

1. (regional) Distortion.

Etymology 2

From Middle English wryen, wrien, wreon, wrihen, from Old English wr?on (“to cover, clothe, envelop, conceal, hide, protect, defend”), from Proto-Germanic *wr?han? (“to wrap, cover”), from Proto-Indo-European *wrey?- (“to turn, wrap, tie”), from *wer- (“to turn, bend”).

Verb

wry (third-person singular simple present wries, present participle wrying, simple past and past participle wried)

1. (transitive, obsolete) To cover; clothe; cover up; cloak; hide.

English

Alternative forms

• humor (American)

Etymology

From Middle English humour, from Old French humor, from Latin humor, correctly umor (“moisture”), from hum?, correctly um? (“to be moist”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?hju?.m?(?)/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?hju?m?/, /?ju?m?/
• Hyphenation: hu?mour
• Rhymes: -u?m?(?)

Noun

humour (usually uncountable, plural humours) (British spelling)

1. (uncountable) The quality of being amusing, comical, funny. [from the early 18th c.]
   • 1774, Oliver Goldsmith, Retaliation

     For thy sake I admit / That a Scot may have humour, I'd almost said wit.

   • A great deal of excellent humour was expended on the perplexities of mine host.

   Synonyms: amusingness, comedy, comicality, wit

2. (uncountable) A mood, especially a bad mood; a temporary state of mind or disposition brought upon by an event; an abrupt illogical inclination or whim.
   • 1625, Francis Bacon, Apophthegms

     a prince of a pleasant humour

   • 1684, Lord Roscommon, Essay on Translated Verse

     Examine how your humour is inclined, / And which the ruling passion of your mind.

   • Is my friend all perfection, all virtue and discretion? Has he not humours to be endured?

   Synonym: mood

3. (archaic or historical) Any of the fluids in an animal body, especially the four "cardinal humours" of blood, yellow bile, black bile and phlegm that were believed to control the health and mood of the human body.
   • , Book I, New York 2001,page 147:

     A humour is a liquid or fluent part of the body, comprehended in it, for the preservation of it; and is either innate or born with us, or adventitious and acquisite.

   • 1763, Antoine-Simon Le Page Du Pratz, History of Louisisana (PG), (tr. 1774) page 42:

     For some days a fistula lacrymalis had come into my left eye, which discharged an humour, when pressed, that portended danger.

   Synonym: bodily fluid

4. (medicine) Either of the two regions of liquid within the eyeball, the aqueous humour and vitreous humour.
5. (obsolete) Moist vapour, moisture.

Synonyms

• (something funny): comedy, wit, witticism

Derived terms

Related terms

Descendants

• ? Korean: ?? (yumeo)

Translations

Verb

humour (third-person singular simple present humours, present participle humouring, simple past and past participle humoured)

1. (transitive) To pacify by indulging.

Translations

See also

• humour on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

French

Etymology

Borrowed from English humour. Doublet of humeur.

Pronunciation

• ^{(mute h)} IPA^(key): /y.mu?/
• Rhymes: -u?

Noun

humour m (plural humours)

1. humor; comic effect in a communication or performance.

Derived terms

Further reading

• “humour” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Italian

Etymology

From English humour.

Noun

humour m (invariable)

1. sense of humour

Further reading

• humour in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana

Middle English

Alternative forms

• humore, umour, humor, humur, humer

Etymology

From Old French humor, from Latin h?mor, ?mor.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /iu??mu?r/, /?iu?mur/

Noun

humour (plural humours)

1. A "cardinal humour" (four liquids believed to affect health and mood)
2. A bodily liquid or substance that causes disease or affliction.
3. A bodily liquid or substance that is caused by disease.
4. One of the two (usually reckoned as three or four) fluidous portions of the eye.
5. Any fluid; something which flows or moves in a fluidous manner:
   1. The liquid contained within a plant; plant juices.
   2. (rare) A liquid of the human body (e.g. blood)
6. A mist or gas; a substance dissipated in the air.
7. (rare) One of the four classical elements (fire, earth, air, and water).

Descendants

• English: humour, humor
• Scots: humour

References

• “h?m?ur, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-12-09.

See also

• (four humours) flewme,? coler,? malencolie,? sanguine ^[edit]

Old French

Noun

humour m or f

1. (Anglo-Norman) Alternative form of humor