ill humor

Word family

• ill-humored
  adjectiveC1
• ill-humoredly
  adverbC1
• good humor
  nounB2

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

'Ill humor', 'bad mood', 'crossness', and 'irritability' all describe a state of being annoyed or displeased, but they differ in register and scope. 'Ill humor' is the most formal and literary of the four; it appears more in written narratives than casual speech. 'Bad mood' is the everyday default — neutral, common, and used by speakers at all levels. 'Crossness' focuses on how the mood shows outwardly, usually through sharp or grumpy responses. 'Irritability' has a clinical or dispositional flavour: it suggests a lowered threshold for annoyance that may last for days rather than an hour. For example, 'The manager was in ill humor after the board meeting' sounds like a description from a novel, while 'The manager was in a bad mood after the board meeting' is what most English speakers would say in conversation.

Common collocations

Etymology

The phrase 'ill humor' comes from the older English use of 'humor' (from Latin 'umor' meaning moisture) to refer to the four bodily fluids believed to govern temperament. Someone whose 'humors' were unbalanced was thought to be in a bad state — hence 'ill humor' for a cross or irritable mood. The modern meaning drops the medical theory but keeps the sense of a temporary emotional state.