black bile

noun

1. one of the four elemental bodily humors of medieval physiology, regarded as causing gloominess.

black bile

noun

1. archaic.
   one of the four bodily humours; melancholy See humour

Word History and Origins

Origin of black bile¹

First recorded in 1790–1800

Example Sentences

Take humoral theory: In the Middle Ages, the body was thought to consist of four liquid components called humors—blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm.

From National Geographic

“I think a toxic, black bile comes out every time you say something like that.”

From New York Times

The Greek physician Hippocrates believed that people’s personalities were governed by the amounts of phlegm, blood, black bile and yellow bile that flowed through their bodies.

From New York Times

Hellebore was prescribed in ancient Greece and the Middle Ages alike for its purgative effects, to rid the body of excess “black bile,” the imagined cause of melancholy.

From New York Times

The ancient Greeks, for example, believed mental disorders arose when the digestive tract produced too much black bile.

From Science Magazine