BBC: The four 'humours'

Today, we're diving into a fashionating piece of history- the ancient theory of the four humours. 

First suggested in ancient Greece, it shaped how people thought about health and personality for more than 2,000 years- and believe it or not, some of it still feels familiar today. 

We'll explain the myths, the mdeicine, and the vocabulary you'll need ot understand it all. 

But first, let's start with a question for you to think about. In ancient humoral theory, which of these was not one of the four humours?

a) Blood    b) Phlegm   c) Yellow bile   d) Oxygen

We'll give you the answer at the end lof the programme. 

The idea of the four humours comes from ancient Greek thinkers like Hippocrates and Galen. They believed our bodies were ruled by four fluids- blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile- and that these fluids controlled our health and our personality. 

So if you had too much of one humour, it wasn't just about being sick- it was thought to shape your character. You might be cheerful, angry, calm, or sad depending on which humour dominated. 

That brings us to our first word: humour. Today, we use 'humour' to meand funniness, like a good joke. But in ancient medicine, humour meant a body fluid. The four humours were blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile. 

And doctors thought keeping these fluid balanced was the key to health. Too much of one fluid meant illness- or even a difficult personality. 

Let's go through them. First, sanguine. If you had lots of blood, you were considered lively, optimistic, and sociable- the life of the party. 

Then there's choleric. Too much yellow bile made you fiery, stubborn, and quick to anger. 

Next, melkancholic. With an excess of black bile, people were thought to be sad, thoughtful, or even depressed. 

And finally, phlegmatic. Extra phlegm was linked to being calm, quiet, and a bit slow-moving. 

Our second word is choleric. Today we use it to describe someone hot-tempered or easily angered. That comes directly from the idea of too much yellow bile. 

You might still hear people say "he's got a choleric personality" to mean he's quick to lose his temper. 

Next word: melancholic. Originally, it meant "full of black bile." Today, it's used to describe someone who seems das, thoughtful, or gloomy. 

And that shows how these old ideas still shape modern language. The word " melancholy" is common in English poetry, for example. 

The humours weren't just about personality. Doctors gave advice on food, exercise, and even where people should live- alll based on their humor type. 

For example, someone " too watery"- a phlegmatic type- might be told not to eat melons or peaches. They were also advised to move to a drier climate to "balance out" their body. 

That leads to our fourth word: temperanment. This means tyour natural character or mood- whether you're calm, fiery, cheerful, or gloomy. 

The humours theory explained temperament through biology. And even today, when we talk about someone's temperament , we're still echoing that ancient way of classiflying people. 

Eventually, science moved on. By the 17th and 18th centuries, discoveries like the circulation of blood and the invention of themicroscope showe that humours weren't real. 

But the ideas stuck aroun in culture. Shakespeare described characters as choleric, melancholic, or sanguine. And modern psychology has persoanlity models that sound surprisingly similar.