humour

Plural: humours

Noun

a characteristic (habitual or relatively temporary) state of feeling
a message whose ingenuity or verbal skill or incongruity has the power to evoke laughter
(Middle Ages) one of the four fluids in the body whose balance was believed to determine your emotional and physical state
the liquid parts of the body
the quality of being funny
the trait of appreciating (and being able to express) the humorous
The quality of being amusing, comical, funny.
A mood, especially a bad mood; a temporary state of mind or disposition brought upon by an event; an abrupt illogical inclination or whim.
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.
Either of the two regions of liquid within the eyeball, the aqueous humour and vitreous humour.
Moist vapour, moisture.

Verb

Verb Forms: humoured, humouring, humours

To indulge someone's mood or whim; to please.
put into a good mood
To pacify by indulging.

Examples

He was in a particularly vile humour that afternoon.
I know you don't believe my story, but humour me for a minute and imagine it to be true.
She had to humour her younger brother’s request to use the Z tile, even though it was a bad move.
She has a great sense of humour, and I always laugh a lot whenever we get together.
The sensitive subject was treated with humour, but in such way that no one was offended.

Origin / Etymology

From Middle English humour, from Old French humor, humour, from Latin hūmor, correctly ūmor (“liquid”), from hūmeō, correctly ūmeō (“to be moist”). The h in these words, which was silent in late Classical Latin, is folk etymological, due to the erroneous association with the word humus (“soil”).
The shift in meaning "liquid" > "mood" is attributed to the classical system of physiology, where human behaviour is regulated by four bodily humours (fluids). The sense "mood" gave rise to the verb sense "to give in to someone's mood or whim" and, by narrowing of meaning, the sense "wit".

Synonyms

bodily fluid, body fluid, humor, liquid body substance, mood, sense of humor, sense of humour, temper, wit, witticism, wittiness, amusingness, comedy, comicality

Scrabble Score: 11

humour: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Word
humour: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
humour: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary

Words With Friends Score: 13

humour: valid Words With Friends Word