phlegm

Definition

One of the four humors making up the body in ancient and mediaeval medicine; said to be cold and moist, and often identified with mucus.

Etymology

From Middle English flewme, fleume, fleme, from Old French fleume, Middle French flemme (French flegme), and their source, Latin phlegma, from Ancient Greek φλέγμα (phlégma, “flame; inflammation; clammy humor in the body”), from φλέγειν (phlégein, “to burn”). Possible burning sensation when coughing up phlegm, Compare phlox, flagrant, flame, bleak (adjective), fulminate. Spelling later altered to resemble the word's Latin and Greek roots. The regularly developed form /fliːm/ has been displaced by a pronunciation /flɛm/ of uncertain provenance. It may be inherited, though some kind of learned or spelling pronunciation or influence from phlegmatic is also conceivable.

Example Sentences

• "Each person's unique mixture of these substances determines his temperament: a predominance of blood gives a sanguine temperament; a predominance of phlegm makes one phlegmatic; yellow bile, bilious (or choleric); and black bile, melancholic."
• "Even some members of the new bourgeoisie indulge in conspicuously boorish behavior, like hawking phlegm onto the pavement or picking their noses at business meetings."
• "The attempts made to analyse vegetable substances previous to 1720, merely produced their resolution into the supposed elements of the chemists of those days, namely, salts, Earths, phlegm, and sulphur."

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