It is to laugh ... or is it?

[Brus]

I was listening to "Humours of Whiskey" on Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh's Daybreak/Fáinne an Lae and it occurred to me to wonder:

What does it mean when a tune is "Humours" of something-or-other?

Is it supposed to be funny?

[Nanohedron]

It means that one drinks so much that the Four Humors - blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile - have been effectively replaced now by whisk(e)y. This is echoed in the complaint that one has too much blood in one's alcohol content.

No, but seriously - I'm not entirely clear on it, but I believe "humors" in the ITM tune name context refers to, say, points of interest, IOW what is enjoyable about something. Something like that. Does anybody really know any more?

[JackCampin]

The earliest "humours" tunes are all named after castles and posh residences of the Anglo-Irish aristocracy, the sort of places that would have held dance parties for the elite (for which new tunes would often have been written). The context suggests a meaning like "festivities". The OED doesn't record any such sense for the word but it does have some that tend that way.

[Brus]

The earliest "humours" tunes are all named after castles and posh residences of the Anglo-Irish aristocracy, the sort of places that would have held dance parties for the elite (for which new tunes would often have been written). The context suggests a meaning like "festivities". The OED doesn't record any such sense for the word but it does have some that tend that way.

That's one of the reasons I asked this question here. Dictionaries (on- or off-line) seem to offer no answers.

[david_h]

"Good times" or "Pleasures of" maybe

[Raasayvisitor]

"was ever woman in this humour woo'ed?" Shakespeare, Richard III

there it means "mood", or better "state of mind"

[Kypfer]

"humours" ... could it be an anglicisation of the original gaelic, whatever that might have been?

[JackCampin]

I doubt whether any of the people the tunes were written for had a word of Gaelic. The "Humours of ..." placenames map out the power centres of the Pale.

There are enough documented uses of "humour" in English similar enough in sense that an otherwise undocumented one along the lines of "good times", "merrymaking", "festivity", or "shindig" isn't much of a stretch.

[brianholton]

Wel, the Dictionary of the Scottish Language (http://www.dsl.ac.uk/) also gives 'mood, caprice' under 'Humour', so I;d guess it;s something like 'the fun we had at X's place'.

[AvienMael]

"was ever woman in this humour woo'ed?" Shakespeare, Richard III

there it means "mood", or better "state of mind"

Does it now? I've always thought the meaning to be a little more profound than that - to include the entire drama of the circumstances - especially that of his own guilt. As to the meaning of "humours" in music, I've always thought of it much the same way - including the "good" and the "bad," and whatever else might fetch a knowing nod, wink, or grin.

[maki]

Origin:
Middle English: via Old French from Latin humor 'moisture', from humere (see humid). The original sense was 'bodily fluid' (surviving in aqueous humour and vitreous humour); it was used specifically for any of the cardinal humours (humour (sense 3 of the noun)), whence 'mental disposition' (thought to be caused by the relative proportions of the humours). This led, in the 16th century, to the senses 'mood' (humour (sense 2 of the noun)) and 'whim', hence to humour someone 'to indulge a person's whim'. humour (sense 1 of the noun) dates from the late 16th century

http://oxforddictionaries.com/definitio ... r?q=humour