▪ I. choler, n.1
(ˈkɒlə(r))
Forms: 4 colre, colrye, (coloure), 4–6 coler(e, 5 collor, 6 coller, -ar, cholere, -ier, -ar, color, (colour), 6–7 choller, cholor, 6– choler.
[ME. colre, and colere, coler, a. OF. colre and colère, inherited form, and later learned adaptation of L. cholera (in med.L. often colera), a. Gr. χολέρα, name of a disease, = cholera (sense 2), and including perhaps other bilious disorders (mod.L. dicts. say ‘jaundice’). App. (as stated by Celsus a.d. 50) f. χολή bile, though the formation is obscure and the derivation disputed; another sense of χολέρα was rain-pipe, gutter. With Celsus and Pliny, L. cholera retained the same sense as in Gr.; but in 3rd and 4th c. it was used by Lampridius and Jerome in the sense of Gr. χολή ‘bile’, also ‘bitter anger,’ and became the ordinary name of one of the ‘four humours’ of the physicians (sanguis, cholera, melancolia, phlegma), as in Isidore. In this sense alone the word survived in Romanic, It. collera, Pr. colera, colra, OF. colre, colle, cole, bile, anger. The last has been superseded in Fr. by colère, a re-adaptation of the L. word, of learned origin. Both Fr. types appear in late ME., where also the word appears to have been sometimes confused with colour, esp. in its association with red. In the 16th c. the spelling was refashioned after the original Latin.]
A. n.
1. Bile. a. as one of the ‘four humours’ of early physiology, supposed to cause irascibility of temper.
| c 1386 Chaucer Nun's Pr. T. 108 Certes this dreem..Cometh of greet superfluytee Of youre rede Colera pardee [so 4 MSS; 1 colere, 1 colre, 1 coloure]. 1393 Gower Conf. III. 99 The complexion..Which in a man is coler hote, It maketh a man ben enginous And swifte of fote and eke irous. 1530 Palsgr., Colour, the complexion in a man, colere, cole. 1570 Levins Manip. 71 Choler, humor, cholera. 1656 More Antid. Ath. ii. x. (1712) 69 Mere Choler engages the Fancy to dream of firing of Guns. 1662 Fuller Worthies, Sussex, The Tetrarch Humour of Choler. a 1834 Coleridge Shaks. Notes (1875) 117 The four humours, choler, melancholy, phlegm, and the sanguine portion. |
b. In the modern physiological sense.
(This only gradually disengaged itself from the prec.)
| 1533 Elyot Cast. Helthe (1541) 9 a, Naturall coler is the fome of bloud, the color wherof is redde and clere, or more lyke to an orenge colour. 1576 Baker Jewell of Health 186 a, Halfe a pynt of greene choller. 1682 T. Gibson Anat. 23 Choler is separated by the Liver. 1715 Petiver in Phil. Trans. XXIX. 230 The Seed of this Plant evacuates yellow Choler. 1721–1800 Bailey, Choler, Bile..contained in the Gall Bladder. 1755– Johnson, Choler, the Bile. |
| fig. 1610 Histrio-m. ii. 16 Swarthy India..Disgorging golden choller to the waves. |
c. Bile viewed as a malady or disease; bilious disorder, biliousness.
| c 1386 Chaucer Nun's Pr. T. 126, I conseille yow..That bothe of Colere [1 MS. colre, 1 colour, 2 coloure] and of Malencolye Ye purge yow. 1540 J. Heywood Four P's in Hazl. Dodsley I. 365 It purgeth you clean from the Choler. 1578 Lyte Dodoens i. lvii. 84 Good against the dissease called choler or melancholy. 1593 Shakes. Rich. II, i. i. 153 Let's purge this choller without letting blood. 1624 Harington Diet & Sleep in Babees Bk. (1868) 257 To those that are subject to choller, it is lawfull to feede often. 1683 Tryon Way to Health 83 Butter..ought not to be eaten in too great quantity, for then it generates Choler. |
2. Anger, heat of temper, wrath; choleric disposition, irascibility. Cf. bile, gall, spleen.
| 1530 Palsgr., 207/1 Collar angre, chavlde cole. 1560 Throckmorton in Tytler Hist. Scot. (1864) III. 134 The queen uttered some choler and stomach against them. 1587 Harrison England ii. i. (1877) i. 5 The peeres departed in choler from the Court. 1599 Shakes. Hen. V, iv. vii. 188, I doe know Flueullen valiant, And toucht with Choler, hot as Gunpowder. 1603 Knolles Hist. Turks (1621) 48 He must in great Choller breake out against the poore empresse. a 1674 Clarendon Hist. Reb. (1704) III. x. 44 Hollis, in choler, pulled him by the Nose. 1754 Richardson Grandison (1781) III. xiii. 96, I found my choler rising. 1781 J. Moore View Soc. It. (1790) I. xliii. 466 Subject to violent fits of Choler. 1802 M. Edgeworth Moral T., Good Fr. Governess (1831) 122 The embarrassed manner and stifled choler of Mrs. Grace. 1858 Carlyle Fredk. Gt. (1865) I. iii. xiv. 225 A strong flame of choler burnt in all these Hohenzollerns. |
† 3. In Bible versions probably = cholera, diarrhœa. [Vulg. cholera, LXX. χολέρα.]
| 1382 Wyclif Ecclus. xxxvii. 33 Gredynesse shall neȝhen vnto colre [1388 colrye]. 1611 Bible Ibid. 30 Surfetting will turne into choler. Ibid. xxxi. 20 The paine of..choller, and pangs of the bellie are with an vnsatiable man. |
b. The distemper in swine.
| 1741 Compl. Fam.-Piece iii. 502 The Distemper, called the Choler in Swine, shews itself by the Hog's losing its Flesh. [1887 Times Feb., Swine-fever:—in America it was termed hog-Cholera.] |
4. choler adust, also black choler = black bile, atrabile, melancholy. A supposed thick black and acrid fluid formerly believed to be secreted by the renal glands, and to be the cause of melancholy; another of the four humours of ancient physicians: see melancholy. (By the end of the 16th c., it was recognized as merely a morbid condition of Bile: so Holland, Bacon.)
| 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. iv. xi. (1495) 96 This blacke colera is enmye of kynde. Ibid. (Berthelet 1535), Melancoly—Physiciens cal it colera nigra, coler black. 1578 Lyte Dodoens 377 The leaves of Sena..do scoure away fleme and choler, especially blacke choler, and Melancholie. 1601 Holland Pliny II. Table, Choler black and adust, what purgeth downward. 1607–12 Bacon Ess., Ambition (Arb.) 222 Ambition is like Choler..if it be stopped, and cannott have his way, it becometh Adust, and thereby maligne and venemous. 1635 N. Carpenter Geog. Del. ii. x. 181 That humour in man, which we call Melancholy and choler-adust. 1646 Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. vi. xii. 335 Fevers and hot distempers from choler adust. a 1700 Dryden Cock & Fox 156 Choler adust congeals our blood with fear. 1721–1800 Bailey, Atra bilis, black Choler, Melancholy. |
5. Comb., as † choler-passage, bile duct.
| 1668 Culpepper & Cole Barthol. Anat. Introd., The Gall-bladder, Choler-passage, and Piss-bladder, serve the Liver. |
† B. as adj. = Choleric. [F. colère adj.] Obs.
| 1662 R. Mathew Unl. Alch. xxiv. 16 The several Complexions, as Sanguine, Choller, Melancholly, Flegmatick. |
▪ II. choler
obs. f. collar.