Choleric

A choleric person is easily moved to anger, given that choler or yellow bile was the humor of anger.

Melancholoy

Sad, gloomy, and depressed are appropriate words that describe melancholy. Like the other humors, it is connected to a bodily fluid--this time black bile. One supposes that too much black bile is never good for anyone. Interestingly enough, instead of sadness, melancholy's nature was laziness.

Sanguine

A sanguine person is very happy and generally optimistic. It is one of the humors and derives from the French for "blood." Blood was sometimes considered to be the fire of the body (and the heart was the furnace) although in the case of the humors, choler takes on that function.

Humors

Referring to the four fluids anciently considered the substances of the human body . . . also associated with the four 'elements.' Blood corresponded to fire, Phlegm to water, Black Bile to earth, and Yellow Bile to Air. Imbalances of these fluids were thought to be the cause of most human illnesses, as well as personality traits and characteristics.

Phlegmatic

Phlegmatic describes a person who is calm and lacks emotion. It does indeed derive from "phlegm" in that to the ancients, phlegm was the body's calming agent. We'll explore the other humors, as they are called, in the next little while. (Well at least I will. I don't know what likeaduck has in store for us.)

Hyperkinesis

Hyperkinesis is the medical term for cramp or a muscle that is in spasm. It is also used in psychiatry to indicate children who are hyperactive and have a difficult time concentrating. It is Greek for "above normal motion."

Effect

An effect is a result of something which caused it, i.e. cause-and-effect. One thing (a push) causes another thing (a fall) and the fall would be the effect, or result, of the push.

Caper

Caper means to skip or jump around as a child might. Metaphorically it has come to mean a far-fetched story or a mystery. The Hardy Boys, for example, are not attempting to figure out how to jump but are trying to solve a mystery.

Affect

This is a verb, an action which means to impress or move. It can also mean to produce change in something. Music can affect one deeply, for example.

Convoluted

Convoluted literally means having overlapping coils or shells, like a nautilus. Metaphorically it takes on the notion of complexity or intricacy. A convoluted argument is one that has many twists and turns and is difficult to understand.

Complement

Complement means to fill up or complete. A full complement, therefore, means something is a complete set. Complement derives from the Latin "to fill up or complete."

Compliment

In English we use this word as either a noun or a verb in different contexts. As nouns, or objects, compliments are commonly given to be courteous, civil, or kind; they are considered gifts.
Examples: "Your hair is done so nicely," "Your smile brightens the room!"
When complimenting people, implying a verb or action, we can be congragulating or bestowing an honor upon others.
Example: "They complimented us by throwing a party in our honor"
We received this word from Spanish roots, rising from the word 'comply' and the ending '-ment.'

Capriole

A capriole is a specific move in horsemanship or dressage where the horse leaps from the ground and kicks out her hind legs out (see video). The word originally referred to a dance move where, one assumes, the human kicked his or her legs into the air in similar fashion to the horse. The word is related to caper: to dance or jump about.

Morphology

In linguistics, morphology is the study of the form of words. In science (most particularly biology) it means the study of the form or structure of phenomena. Morphological biology studies the form and structure of living things, such as how bacteria are structured. Linguistically, morphology refers to the how words are structured and concerns itself with elements that act as building blocks for words. For example, linguistic morphology is interested in how "asks" differs from "asked" to indicated a specific sense of time based out of the root "ask." It comes from the Greek morphe--"form" combined with the suffix -ology--the study of a particular subject.

Saturnine

To be gloomy and slow to move is to be saturnine. The word, indeed, does derive from the planet Saturn: the slowest moving planet visible to the naked eye. The planet was associated with Saturn, the king of the Titans--the predecessor of the famous Olympian gods. No doubt the gloomy nature of the word comes not from its divine origin, but more from the association with astronomer's surroundings: the dark.

Discombobulated

To Discombobulate some thing or person is to utterly confuse, upset, or frustrate it or them, "throw[ing them] into a state of confusion." (American Heritage Dictionary) A person can be discombobulated by multiple others harrassing him or her for information. An animal can be discombobulated by a small child picking it up, turning it in circles, chasing it around and then pulling it's tail.

Bucolic

Bucolic indicates something that comes from the country or reminds one of rural life or pastoral pursuits. It is a highly poetic word, given the hardscrabble life that many farmers and other country folk had to endure. It derives from the Greek bous--ox given that a boukolous was an oxherd .

Bellicose

Bellicose means war-like, combative, or hostile. It derives from the Latin bellum or war. It is often confused with bombastic (which makes sense, given the bellicose nature of that word.)

Torrent

A torrent is a fast-moving stream of water or other liquid. Like the other T-words in the past few days, it is often confused with other meanings. For example, many people assume that torrent means storm, simply because it is used metaphorically since heavy rain could be seen as being so intense that it is just like a river.

Torrid

Torrid means hot and dry. A desert is a torrid place. Torrid is often used metaphorically to refer to something that is enticing or alluring, despite the rather desiccated nature of the word.