Lily-livered – Wacky Word Wednesday

We’re back with another round of Wacky Word Wednesday, a weekly celebration of the wackiest and most interesting words from around the world, as well as those to describe the lily-livered among us!

Here’s the definition of today’s wacky word from TermWiki.com:

lil·ly·liv·ered [lil-ee-liv-erd] -adjective weak or lacking in courage; cowardly

Lily-livered is derived from the old belief that the organs of the body represent different temperaments. The liver was said to be the seat of love and passion. If a healthy liver was reddish-brown, then a liver that was pale, or lily-livered, signified a lack of passion, or cowardliness.

This idea is connected to the medicinal beliefs of the ancient Greeks. From 5^th century BCE and all the way throughout the Middle Ages and the Elizabethan period, it was believed that the body contained four main fluids. These four main fluids were identified as the four humors (black bile, yellow bile, phlegm, and blood); illnesses and ailments would result if the humors became imbalanced.

Each of the humors was connected with a season, a universal element, and a combination of qualities, listed below respectively:

• black bile: autumn, earth, cold and dry

• yellow bile: summer, fire, hot and dry

• phlegm: winter, water, cold and moist

• blood: spring, air, hot and moist

The humors were also associated with an individual’s personality traits (hence, the adjective good-humored), determined by which humor was naturally more dominant over the others.

In order to discover which of the four humors was imbalanced, the prescribing doctor would assess the patient’s complexion, urine, stool, and blood. A fever, which is hot and dry, would be due to an excess of yellow bile. The cure would then be something cold and wet to increase the body’s phlegm, such as, for example, a cold bath. The four humors theory was also one of the reasons bloodletting was so popular during the Elizabethan period.

The Elizabethan era also corresponded with Shakespeare’s rise to fame. It is alleged that some of Shakespeare’s characters represent a specific humor: Hamlet with his melancholy, Laertes as choleric, Falstaff as sanguine and Ophelia with her phlegmatic demeanor.

To leave you with some Shakespearean love, from “The Merchant of Venice,” act III, scene ll:

• There is no vice so simple but assumes

Some mark of virtue on his outward parts.

How many cowards whose hearts are all as false

As stairs of sand, wear yet upon their chins

The beards of Hercules and frowning Mars,

Who inward searched, have livers white as milk

If you’re interested in learning more wacky words, make sure to visit csoftintl.com!