choleric
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈkɒl(ə)ɹɪk/
ipa: /ˈkɑlɝɪk/
ipa: /kəˈlɛɹɪk/
ipa: /ˈkɔl(ɘ)ɹɘk/
ipa: /kɘˈliəɹɘk/
Forms: form: more choleric
form: most choleric
Etymology: From Middle English colerik, from Old French colerique, from Latin cholericus, from Ancient Greek χολερικός (kholerikós). By surface analysis, choler + -ic.
Senses: examples: text: And let a man beware, how he keepeth company with choleric and quarrelsome persons; for they will engage him into their own quarrels.
ref: 1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Travel”, in The Essayes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, →OCLC:
text: 1640, George Herbert, Jacula Prudentum; or, Outlandish Proverbs, Sentences, etc., in The Remains of that Sweet Singer of the Temple George Herbert, London: Pickering, 1841, p. 146,
From a choleric man withdraw a little; from him that says nothing for ever.
text: As it was clear that he was a choleric fellow in some respects, Mr Swiveller was relieved to find him in such good humour, and, to encourage him in it, smiled himself.
ref: 1840 April – 1841 November, Charles Dickens, “Chapter the Thirty-fifth”, in The Old Curiosity Shop. A Tale. […], volume I, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1841, →OCLC:
text: Beneath his choleric exterior Gerald O’Hara had the tenderest of hearts.
ref: 1936 June 30, Margaret Mitchell, Gone with the Wind, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, →OCLC; republished New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, 1944, →OCLC:
glosses: Having a temperament characterized by an excess of choler; easily becoming angry.
examples: text: What, what, my lord! are you so choleric
With Eleanor, for telling but her dream?
ref: 1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii]:
text: How angry the poor devil is! In fine, thou art as choleric as a cook by a fireside.
ref: 1667, John Dryden, Sir Martin Mar-all, act V, scene 1:
text: For God’s ſake, Madam, vvhy ſo Cholerick? I ſay, this Letter is ſome Forgery; […]
ref: 1712, Humphry Polesworth [pseudonym; John Arbuthnot], “An Account of the Conference between Mrs. Bull and Don Diego Dismallo”, in John Bull in His Senses: Being the Second Part of Law is a Bottomless-Pit. […], Edinburgh: […] James Watson, […], →OCLC, page 20:
text: [As] in most revolutionary movements, counterrevolutionary action was dealt with harshly – witness Lucas's (1994) choleric reaction to Ball and Mankiw (1994).
ref: 2024, Jeremy B. Rudd, A Practical Guide to Macroeconomics, p. 2
glosses: Showing or expressing anger.
examples: text: I now proceed to enumerate those lesions and morbid changes found in the bodies of those cut off by cholera, which must have preceded the appearance of the disease, and which, existing, as they did, in very different organs, had no connection with the choleric symptoms, but nevertheless rendered the chance of recovery much less likely.
ref: 1833, David Craigie, “Observations, pathological and therapeutic, on the epidemic cholera, as it has prevailed in Edinburgh and its vicinity”, in Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal, number 114, page 21:
glosses: Of or relating to cholera (infectious disease).
examples: text: I fear it is too choleric a meat.
How say you to a fat tripe finely broil’d?
ref: c. 1590–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iii]:
glosses: Causing an excess of choler.
Synonyms: sense: easily becoming angry
word: ill-tempered
sense: easily becoming angry
word: irascible
sense: easily becoming angry
word: temperamental
sense: showing anger
word: wrathful
sense: showing anger
word: irate
sense: showing anger
word: angry
sense: showing anger
word: indignant
sense: showing anger
word: vexed
Derived terms: cholerically
cholericly
cholericness
noncholeric
sanguineocholeric
uncholeric
Related terms: choler