black bile

Meaning

1. 1noununcountablearchaic

   In ancient and medieval medicine, one of four body fluids called humors, thought to cause sadness and gloomy moods when there was too much of it.

   Grammar: Uncountable and used mainly when discussing the history of medicine: an excess of black bile.

   Patterns

   • an excess of black bile
   • a balance of black bile

   Ancient doctors blamed an excess of black bile for long periods of sadness.

   The word melancholy comes from the Greek for black bile.

   Medieval writers linked black bile to the autumn season and the earth.

Common combinations

excess of black bile

An excess of black bile was thought to make people brooding and withdrawn.

theory of black bile

The theory of black bile shaped European medicine for centuries.

four humors

Black bile was counted among the four humors, with blood, phlegm and yellow bile.

black bile and melancholy

Black bile and melancholy were closely tied in old medical writing.

balance the black bile

Doctors tried to balance the black bile with diet and bloodletting.

Synonyms and how they differ

melancholy

Melancholy was the old name for the humor itself and later came to mean the sad mood that it was thought to cause.

melancholia

Melancholia is the older medical name for the illness blamed on black bile, and it reads as historical in tone.

Word family

bile noun

the real digestive fluid made by the liver

melancholy noun

deep, lasting sadness

melancholic adjective

sad and thoughtful, or of the black bile type in old theory

humor noun

one of the four fluids in old medical theory

humoral adjective

relating to the humors

Commonly confused: black bile or yellow bile?

Practice

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