choleric

[ kol-er-ik, kuh-ler-ik ]

adjective

1. extremely irritable or easily angered; irascible:

   a choleric disposition.

   Synonyms: touchy, impatient, testy, wrathful

   Antonyms: tranquil, phlegmatic

2. Obsolete.
   1. bilious.
   2. causing biliousness.

choleric

/ ˈkɒlərɪk /

adjective

1. bad-tempered
2. bilious or causing biliousness

Derived Forms

• ˈcholerically, adverb

Other Words From

• choler·i·cal·ly choler·ic·ly adverb
• choler·ic·ness noun
• non·choler·ic adjective
• un·choler·ic adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of choleric¹

1300–50; Middle English colerik < Medieval Latin colericus bilious, Latin cholericus < Greek cholerikós. See cholera, -ic

Example Sentences

“Palace Fury at Megflix,” The Daily Mail said, though just how choleric the royal family was is open to debate.

From New York Times

Show gang brutality, highlight people clinging to rafts made from rotted wood, make videos of dehydrated, choleric children fighting to live.

From Washington Post

A hot and dry person was thought to be choleric and ruled by yellow bile, associated with childhood and summer.

From Washington Post

Even outside politics, Mr. Jones’s choleric, wide-eyed style has influenced the way in which a new generation of conspiracy theorists looks for fame online.

From New York Times

Griffith was one of those self-mythologizing frontier characters, a self-promoter of choleric temper and roller-coaster fortunes; the “colonel” title itself is of murky origin, perhaps from some brief spell with the California National Guard.

From Los Angeles Times

More About Choleric

What does choleric mean?

Choleric means easily angered or generally bad-tempered.

People described as choleric are grouchy all the time and prone to getting into arguments, often for very little reason.

The word choleric comes from the medieval notion that people’s personalities are based on the balance of four different types of elemental fluids in their body, called humors. A choleric person was thought to be generally irritable due to the amount of yellow bile, or choler, in their body.

Example: She was the kind of choleric person who would get into a fight over anything and everything.

Where does choleric come from?

The first records of choleric in English come from the early 1300s. It comes from the Medieval Latin colericus, meaning “bilious” (“having excess bile”). Bilious can also be a synonym of choleric meaning “easily angered.” Choleric is the adjective form of the noun choler, which can refer to yellow bile or to anger and irritability. The disease cholera gets its name from the same root.

In medieval physiology, a person’s disposition was thought to be based on whichever of the four elemental fluids in their body was most predominant. People who had a lot of phlegm were called phlegmatic and were said to be calm or perhaps apathetic. Those whose blood was said to rule their emotions were called sanguine and were thought to be cheerful. People with an excess of black bile were said to be melancholy—gloomy. Choler, or yellow bile, became associated with irritability, and those with too much of it were said to be choleric.

All of this was pseudoscience, but the adjectives that resulted from it are still used today. Sometimes you’ll see them as part of personality tests claiming to be able to label you with one or a combination of them. But they’re also used in a straightforward way to describe people’s overall temperaments. Choleric doesn’t just mean “angry”—you wouldn’t use it to describe someone who was angry in one particular situation. Instead, choleric is applied to the kind of people who have a short fuse and are just about always getting angry about something.

Did you know ... ?

What are some other forms related to choleric?

• choler (noun)

What are some synonyms for choleric?

• bilious
• irascible
• irritable
• grouchy
• peevish
• quick-tempered 
• bad-tempered

What are some words that share a root or word element with choleric? 

 

• cholera
• chlorine
• cholic

What are some words that often get used in discussing choleric?

 

• anger
• angry
• temper
• temperament
• bile
• humor
• yellow bile

How is choleric used in real life?

Sometimes, choleric is used in reference to the outdated idea of personalities being governed by bodily fluids. But it’s often used in a straightforward way to simply mean “bad-tempered.” It’s a bit more formal than describing someone as grouchy or grumpy.

If your opponent is of choleric temper, irritate him.

— Sun Tzu (@Sun_Tzu_Quotes) April 13, 2020

I feel like I really would have excelled in a time where you could blame all your problems on your choleric temperament.

— Julia Gulia 🌈 (@JRobb773) December 26, 2018

i used to be melancholic-choleric now i'm phlegmatic-choleric

— j. 👽 (@loudestdork) April 10, 2019

 

 

Try using choleric!

Which of the following words would NOT be used to describe someone considered choleric?

A. cross
B. irritable
C. tranquil
D. quarrelsome