Dictionary

humorist en · NOUN

Etymology

Etymology tree English humor Proto-Indo-European *-id- Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *-idyéti Proto-Hellenic *-íd͏̌d͏̌ō Ancient Greek -ῐ́ζω (-ĭ́zō) Proto-Hellenic *-tās Ancient Greek -τής (-tḗs) Ancient Greek -ῐστής (-ĭstḗs)bor. Latin -istader. Old French -istebor. Middle English -ist English -ist English humorist From humor + -ist.

Meanings

1. (archaic, historical) Someone who believes that health and temperament are determined by bodily humours; a humoralist.
2. (obsolete) Someone subject to whims or fancies; an eccentric.
   • She and the duke used to rally me upon my fondness for lord W—m, who was a sort of an humourist, and apt to be in a pet, in which case he would leave the company, and go to bed by seven o'clock in the evening. 1751, [Tobias] Smollett, The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle […], volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), London: Harrison and Co., […], →OCLC:
   • I called on him and found him a contemporary of Beauclerk and Langton at Trinity College, Oxford, and a man of reading and animation, but a kind of humourist. 1792, James Boswell, in Danziger & Brady (eds.), Boswell: The Great Biographer (Journals 1789–1795), Yale 1989, p. 175
3. A humorous or witty person, especially someone skilled in humorous writing or performance.
   • But when it comes to conveying what made these people funny, what impact they had in their day and, especially, what debt they are owed by present-day humorists, Johnson doesn’t put much meat on the old bones. 2010 December 24, Neil Genzlinger, “What’s So Funny?”, in The New York Times:
   • Art Buchwald, who satirized the follies of the rich, the famous and the powerful for half a century as the most widely read newspaper humorist of his time, died Wednesday night in Washington. 2007 January 18, Richard Severo, “Art Buchwald, 81, Columnist and Humorist Who Delighted in the Absurd”, in The New York Times:
   • Peter, after the manner of man at the breakfast table, had allowed half his kedgeree to get cold and was sniggering over a letter. Sophia looked at him sharply. The only letter she had received was from her mother. Sophia's mother was not a humourist. 1921, Ben Travers, chapter 1, in A Cuckoo in the Nest, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1925, →OCLC:
4. One who studies or portrays the humours of people.

Forms

Coordinates

clown · comedienne · jester · comic · comedian

Deriveds

humoristic

Translations (22)

be гумары́ст (writer of humor) · gl humorista (writer of humor) · it umorista (writer of humor) · hu humorista (writer of humor) · alt сӱӱнер кылыкту кижи (writer of humor) · bg хумори́ст (writer of humor) · ru юмори́ст (writer of humor) · be гумары́стка (writer of humor) · lv humorists (writer of humor) · de Humorist (writer of humor) · pt humorista (writer of humor) · de Humoristin (writer of humor) · ro umoristă (writer of humor) · ro umorist (writer of humor) · uk гумори́стка (writer of humor) · lv humoriste (writer of humor) · ru юмори́стка (writer of humor) · es humorista (writer of humor) · ca humorista (writer of humor) · fr humoriste (writer of humor) · uk гумори́ст (writer of humor) · yi הומאָריסט (writer of humor)