What does choler mean?
Choler is a literary and historical term for anger, particularly the kind of hot-tempered irritability once attributed to an excess of yellow bile in the body. In the humoral medicine of ancient Greece and medieval Europe, health depended on the balance of four bodily fluids — blood, phlegm, black bile, and yellow bile — and a surplus of yellow bile, or choler, was believed to produce a quick-tempered, combative disposition. Though physicians abandoned this theory centuries ago, the word survives in elevated prose and in historical discussion, as in phrases like 'a fit of choler' or 'his choler rose'. Its adjective form, choleric, remains somewhat better known, describing someone habitually prone to anger. Choler shares its ultimate root with cholera, the disease name reflecting the same bile connection. For readers of older literature, from Shakespeare to Victorian novels, recognising choler as a stately synonym for rage can illuminate characterisation and add nuance to descriptions of temper.
nounCholer is anger or irritability, especially as a temperament or habitual disposition. It originally referred to yellow bile, one of the four bodily humours believed in medieval medicine to cause an irascible temper when present in excess.
- Anger or irascibility of temperament (now chiefly literary or historical).
- Yellow bile, one of the four humours of ancient and medieval physiology (historical sense).
"The old colonel's choler flared at the slightest hint of insubordination."
"He struggled to master the choler that rose whenever his authority was questioned."
"In humoral theory, an excess of choler was thought to render a person quick-tempered and contentious."
Rarely pluralised; the noun is almost always used as a mass noun denoting an abstract quality.
"Such frequent cholers made him difficult company."
Before modern medicine, your bad temper was blamed on too much yellow bile sloshing around inside you — that bile was called 'choler', and it's where we get both 'choleric' and, oddly enough, 'cholera'.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of choler
Choler entered Middle English in the late medieval period via Old French 'colere', ultimately deriving from Latin 'cholera', which came from the Greek 'kholera' meaning bile. In classical and medieval physiology, the four humours were blood, phlegm, black bile, and yellow bile, with yellow bile — choler — governing an irascible temperament. Cognates include 'choleric' (quick to anger), 'cholera' (the disease), and 'melancholy' (literally 'black bile'), all tracing back to the same Greek root.
Related word forms
How choler is actually used
Choler is a formal, literary word, largely confined to historical writing about humoral medicine or to deliberately elevated prose. In everyday English, speakers use 'anger' or 'temper' instead. The adjective form 'choleric' is somewhat more familiar than the noun.
Easily confused with choler
Cholera is a bacterial infectious disease, while choler means anger — though both derive from the Greek word for bile.
A collar is a band worn around the neck; choler is archaic/literary for anger, and the two are near-homophones.