humoral

English

Alternative forms

• humoural

Etymology

From Middle English humerale, humorale, humoural, from Middle French humoral and Medieval Latin hūmorālis, from Latin hūmor. By surface analysis, humor +‎ -al.

Adjective

humoral (not comparable)

1. (pathology, physiology) Relating to the body fluids or humours.
   • 2009, Giuseppe Remuzzi, Stefano Chiaramonte, N. Perico, Humoral Immunity in Kidney Transplantation, page 118:

     Both the apocryphal belief in pre-transplant cross-match screening to discard active humoral immune response against the donor and the lack of sensible and reliable markers for detecting AMR give explanation to the surprising fact that AMR was nearly neglected in human renal transplantation during years.

   • 2012, Joseph Lobue, Albert S. Gordon, Humoral Control of Growth And Differentiation, page 52:

     Thus, the demonstration of the presence of: a thymic-lymphocytosis promoting factor in mice (Metcalf, 1958); a humoral lymphocyte stimulating factor in the serum of irradiated rats (Ito and Weinstein, 1963); a thymic lymphopoietic factor, "thymosin" (Goldstein et al., 1966); and a lymphocytosis inducing factor in the plasma of rats treated with antilymphocyte serum (Rakowitz et al., 1972) lend support to this hypothesis. Several other reports in the literature suggest the presence of humoral agents regulating leukocyte numbers.

   • 2015, G. H. Parker, Humoral Agents in Nervous Activity:

     The usual kind of excitation met with in the pancreas is purely humoral and there is no reason to assume that any form of nervous activity is involved in it.

2. (historical) Pertaining to humorism. (The theory of the influence of the humors in the production of disease.)
   • 2019, Amy Kenny, Humoral Wombs on the Shakespearean Stage, page 4:

     By predicating conception on differing humoral temperaments of men and women, medical theorists justified their own subjugation of women by cultivating a distinct female humorality responsible for behavior.

   • 2021, Stephen Taylor, The Humoral Herbal: In Good Humour, page 6:

     The planets are used as symbols in Culpeper's humoral philosophy, and the way he uses them had developed within hermetic philosophy.

   • 2021, Amy Kenny, Kaara L. Peterson, “Introduction—Everyday Humoralism”, in Amy Kenny, Kaara L. Peterson, editor, Humorality in Early Modern Art, Material Culture, and Performance, page 2:

     It is now well recognized that Gelenic humoral theory underpinned early modern medical practices and the maintenance of health, an antique discourse used to describe interiority and emotion: medical practitioners understood "temperament" or psychological and physiological bodily syestems according to a subject's individual balance of four essential humors—yellow bile (or choler), black bile (or melancholy), phlegm, and blood.

Derived terms

• biohumoral
• humoral immunity
• humoral immunity
• humoralism
• humorality
• immunohumoral

 

French

Etymology

Ultimately from Latin hūmorālis.

Pronunciation

• Audio:

  (file)

Adjective

humoral (feminine humorale, masculine plural humoraux, feminine plural humorales)

1. humoral

Further reading

• “humoral”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

German

Etymology

Ultimately from Latin hūmorālis.

Pronunciation

• Audio:

  (file)

Adjective

humoral (strong nominative masculine singular humoraler, not comparable)

1. (relational) of the bodily fluids; humoral
2. (relational) of the transport of substances in the blood or lymph
3. (relational) of the secretion of hormones and neurotransmitters

Declension

Positive forms of humoral (uncomparable)

number & gender		singular			plural
		masculine	feminine	neuter
predicative		er ist humoral	sie ist humoral	es ist humoral	sie sind humoral
strong declension (without article)	nominative	humoraler	humorale	humorales	humorale
	genitive	humoralen	humoraler	humoralen	humoraler
	dative	humoralem	humoraler	humoralem	humoralen
	accusative	humoralen	humorale	humorales	humorale
weak declension (with definite article)	nominative	der humorale	die humorale	das humorale	die humoralen
	genitive	des humoralen	der humoralen	des humoralen	der humoralen
	dative	dem humoralen	der humoralen	dem humoralen	den humoralen
	accusative	den humoralen	die humorale	das humorale	die humoralen
mixed declension (with indefinite article)	nominative	ein humoraler	eine humorale	ein humorales	(keine) humoralen
	genitive	eines humoralen	einer humoralen	eines humoralen	(keiner) humoralen
	dative	einem humoralen	einer humoralen	einem humoralen	(keinen) humoralen
	accusative	einen humoralen	eine humorale	ein humorales	(keine) humoralen

Further reading

• “humoral” in Duden online
• “humoral” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French humoral.

Adjective

humoral m or n (feminine singular humorală, masculine plural humorali, feminine and neuter plural humorale)

1. humoral

Declension

		singular				plural
		masculine	neuter	feminine		masculine	neuter	feminine
nominative- accusative	indefinite	humoral		humorală		humorali	humorale
	definite	humoralul		humorala		humoralii	humoralele
genitive- dative	indefinite	humoral		humorale		humorali	humorale
	definite	humoralului		humoralei		humoralilor	humoralelor

Spanish

Etymology

Ultimately from Latin hūmorālis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /umoˈɾal/ [u.moˈɾal]
• Rhymes: -al
• Syllabification: hu‧mo‧ral

Adjective

humoral m or f (masculine and feminine plural humorales)

1. humoral

Further reading

• “humoral”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2024 December 10