Wry vs Humour - What's the difference?
wry | humour |
Turned away, contorted (of the face or body).
* 1837 , , The Pickwick Papers , ch. 17:
* 1913 , , The Motion Picture Chums at Seaside Park , ch. 11:
Dryly humorous; sardonic or bitterly ironic.
* 1871 , , The Haunted Baronet , ch. 6:
Twisted, bent, crooked.
Deviating from the right direction; misdirected; out of place.
* 1820 , , The Abbot , ch. 34:
* 1876 , , The Works and Life of Walter Savage Landor , vol. IV, Imaginary Conversations, Third Series: Dialogues of Literary Men, ch. 6—Milton and Andrew Marvel,
(obsolete) To turn (away); to swerve or deviate.
* 1535 , , Dialogue of Comfort Against Tribulation , ch. 18:
* , Cymbeline , act 5, sc. 1:
(obsolete) To divert; to cause to turn away.
To twist or contort (the body, face etc.).
(obsolete) To cover; clothe; cover up; cloak; hide.
(label) Moist vapour, moisture.
Any of the fluids in an animal body, especially the four "cardinal humours" of blood, yellow bile, black bile and phlegm that were believed to control the health and mood of the human body.
*, Book I, New York 2001, p. 147:
* 1763 , (Antoine-Simon Le Page Du Pratz),
(label) Either of the two regions of liquid within the eyeball, the aqueous humour and vitreous humour.
(label) A mood, especially a bad mood; a temporary state of mind or disposition brought upon by an event; an abrupt illogical inclination or whim.
* (Francis Bacon) (1561-1626)
* (William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
* (1633?-1684)
* (Robert South) (1634–1716)
*{{quote-book, year=1899, author=(Stephen Crane)
, title=, chapter=1
, passage=[…] (it was the town's humour to be always gassing of phantom investors who were likely to come any moment and pay a thousand prices for everything) — “[…] Them rich fellers, they don't make no bad breaks with their money. […]”}}
(label) The quality of being amusing, comical, funny.
* (Oliver Goldsmith) (1730-1774)
* (Washington Irving) (1783-1859)
*
*{{quote-book, year=1959, author=(Georgette Heyer), title=(The Unknown Ajax), chapter=1
, passage=Charles had not been employed above six months at Darracott Place, but he was not such a whopstraw as to make the least noise in the performance of his duties when his lordship was out of humour .}}
To pacify by indulging.
In transitive terms the difference between wry and humour
is that wry is to twist or contort (the body, face etc.) while humour is to pacify by indulging.As verbs the difference between wry and humour
is that wry is to turn (away); to swerve or deviate while humour is to pacify by indulging.As an adjective wry
is turned away, contorted (of the face or body).As a noun humour is
moist vapour, moisture.wry
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) wrien, from (etyl) . Compare awry, wriggle.Adjective
(en-adj)- '"Why, you snivelling, wry -faced, puny villain," gasped old Lobbs.
- “Humph! Had to,” said Pep with a wry grimace.
- "[T]he master says a wry word now and then; and so ye let your spirits go down, don't ye see, and all sorts o' fancies comes into your head."
- Catherine hath made a wry stitch in her broidery, when she was thinking of something else than her work.
p. 155 (Google preview):
- . . . the wry rigour of our neighbours, who never take up an old idea without some extravagance in its application.
Derived terms
* wryly * awryVerb
- God pricketh them of his great goodness still. And the grief of this great pang pincheth them at the heart, and of wickedness they wry away.
- You married ones,
- If each of you should take this course, how many
- Must murder wives much better than themselves
- For wrying but a little!
Etymology 2
From (etyl) wryen, wrien, wreon, wrihen, from (etyl) .Verb
humour
English
(wikipedia humour)Alternative forms
* humor (qualifier)Noun
(en noun)- A humour is a liquid or fluent part of the body, comprehended in it, for the preservation of it; and is either innate or born with us, or adventitious and acquisite.
History of Louisisana(PG), (tr. 1774) p. 42:
- For some days a fistula lacrymalis had come into my left eye, which discharged an humour , when pressed, that portended danger.
- a prince of a pleasant humour
- I like not the humour of lying.
- Examine how your humour is inclined, / And which the ruling passion of your mind.
- Is my friend all perfection, all virtue and discretion? Has he not humours to be endured?
- For thy sake I admit / That a Scot may have humour , I'd almost said wit.
- A great deal of excellent humour was expended on the perplexities of mine host.
- They stayed together during three dances, went out on to the terrace, explored wherever they were permitted to explore, paid two visits to the buffet, and enjoyed themselves much in the same way as if they had been school-children surreptitiously breaking loose from an assembly of grown-ups. The boy became volubly friendly and bubbling over with unexpected humour and high spirits.
Synonyms
* bodily fluid * (mood) mood * (something funny) comedy, wit, witticism * (quality of being amusing) amusingness, comedy, comicality, witDerived terms
* aqueous humour * black humour * crystalline humour * gallows humour * humoral * humorous * humorist * humorism * out of humour * sense of humour * toilet humour * vitreous humourVerb
- I know you don't believe my story, but humour me for a minute and imagine it to be true.
