Choler

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A feeling of intense anger or irritation ; a concept from ancient medicine referring to a body fluid thought to cause anger and aggression
2. Strong feelings of resentment or fury ; an ancient belief that a yellow bodily fluid influenced temperament by provoking anger
3. Irritable or wrathful mood ; a historical term for one of the four humors believed to control emotional states

Etymology: Ancient Greek physicians believed the body held four fluids, or humors, and that an excess of one could shape a person's temperament. The Greek word "kholé" meant "bile," and the yellow bile it named was thought to make people quick-tempered. That physiological idea is still embedded in English: "choler" once referred to the humor itself, and only later came to mean the anger it was supposed to cause. The word reached English through Middle English "coler," meaning "yellow bile," which was borrowed from Old French "colere," a word that covered both bile and anger. Old French had inherited the Latin "cholera," which referred to a bilious disease. The Latin form also gave English "cholera," the illness, and so "choler" and "cholera" are doublets, two English words descended from the same source by different routes.

Synonyms: anger, irritation, rage

Antonyms: calm, peace