Choleric

a. Forms: 4 colrik, coloryk, 4–5 colerik(e, 4, 6 -yk(e, 6 -ycke, collerick(e, colloryke, colorycke, coloricke, -icque, 6–7 cholerique, -yke, -ike, cholleric(ke, 6–8 cholerick, 7 cholloricke, 7– choleric. [a. F. cholérique, ad. L. cholericus bilious:—Gr. χολερικός of or relating to χολέρα CHOLERA.]

  † 1.  Of persons: Having CHOLER as the predominant humour; of bilious ‘complexion,’ or temperament; bilious. Obs. exc. Hist.

1340.  Ayenb., 157. Þe dyevel … asayleþ stranglakest … þane colrik mid ire and mid discord, þane sanguinen mid jolivete, [etc.].

c. 1386.  Chaucer, Prol., 587. The Reue was a sclendre colerik man.

1398.  Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., IV. x. (1495), 95. Colerik men been generally wrathful, in y^e body longe & sk[l]endre & lene.

1542.  Boorde, Dyetary, viii. (1870), 245. Sanguyne and colorycke men.

1699.  Dryden, Fables, Pref. [Homer and Virgil] being so different in their tempers, one choleric and sanguine, the other phlegmatic and melancholic.

  b.  of the ‘complexion’ or temperament, etc.

1398.  Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., VIII. xiii. (1495). Mars … hath maystry ouer colera fyre and coleryk complexyon; he disposeth the soule … to wrathe … and to other coleryke passions.

1545.  Raynold, Byrth Mankynde, 148. Colerycke and egre humours.

1609.  C. Butler, Fem. Mon., vi. The Bees … with their cholerike Complexion, which their very hue bewrayeth.

  † c.  transf. Of hot or fiery nature. Obs.

c. 1386.  Chaucer, Sqr.’s T., 43. In Aries, the colerik hoote signe.

1675.  Evelyn, Terra (1729), 7. The common opinion is, that all hot, and choleric Grounds, are red or brown.

  † 2.  Subject or liable to bilious disorder; bilious.

1563.  T. Gale, Antidot., II. 74. In ceasynge of paynes in the goute of cholericke personnes.

1586.  Cogan, Haven Health, ccxiii. (1636), 224. Honey is very … unwholesome for … such as be cholerick.

1634.  T. Johnson, trans. Parey’s Chirurg., I. vi. 17. Cholericke men are of a pale or yellowish colour.

  † b.  of maladies, symptoms, etc. Choleric passion: old name of CHOLERA, sense 2.

1565–75.  Cooper, Thesaurus, Cholera, a troublous flixe and vomite … the choleryke passyon.

1590.  Nashe, Pasquil’s Apol., I. C ij b. But for Cholericke diseases this scorching wether.

1620.  Venner, Via Recta, vii. 131. They … help the cholericke passion, which is a vehement purging of choler vpwards and downewards.

1657.  W. Coles, Adam in Eden, lxxi. 135. It [French Barley] is very profitable in Cholerick Feavers.

1707.  Floyer, Physic. Pulse-Watch, 379. The Serum and choleric Blood are mix’d … when the Vesica invades the Heart.

  † c.  Causing choler, or biliousness. Obs.

a. 1535.  Dewes, Introd. Fr., in Palsgr., 1071. Whan they ben rosted they ben somwhat more colloryke.

1596.  Shaks., Tam. Shr., IV. iii. 19. What say you to a Neats foote?… I feare it is too chollericke a meate.

1599.  Nashe, Lenten Stuffe (1871), 59. A cholerick parcel of food it is.

  3.  Inclined to wrath, irascible, hot-tempered, passionate, fiery: these being the characteristics of the choleric ‘complexion’ or temperament.

1583.  Golding, Calvin on Deut. clxxvii. 1101. The sharpest, the roughest and the cholerickest man y^t euer was.

1588.  Marprel. Ep. (Arb.), 4. My L. of Winchester is very chollericke.

1605.  Shaks., Lear, I. i. 302. Infirme and cholericke yeares.

1793.  Gouv. Morris, in Sparks, Life & Writ. (1832), II. 386. A choleric man beats the post which he has struck his head against.

1853.  C. Brontë, Villette, xxxi. (1876), 353. You are patient, and I am choleric.

  4.  In a passion, enraged, angry, wrathful. † To be choleric with: to be angry with. Obs.

1590.  Shaks., Com. Err., II. ii. 68. I durst haue denied that before you vvere so chollericke. Ibid. (1593), 2 Hen. VI., I. ii. 51. What, what, my Lord? Are you so chollericke With Elianor, for telling but her dreame?

1641.  Baker, Chron., an. 1087 (1674), 30. Winning much money of him, Lewis grew cholerick, that he threw the chess-men at Henry’s face.

1712.  Arbuthnot, John Bull, I. iv. Mrs. Bull you must know, was very apt to be cholerick.

  b.  As a characteristic of words and actions.

1583.  Stanyhurst, Æneis, II. (Arb.), 61. This quick cholerick challenge hee could not abandon.

1603.  Shaks., Meas. for M., II. ii. 130. That in the Captaine ’s but a chollericke word, Which in the Souldier is flat blasphemie.

1615.  Life Earl Essex, in Sel. Harl. Misc. (1793), 161. The cannon … having discharged their cholerick errands.

1754.  Richardson, Grandison, III. xiii. 98. An exertion of spirit, as he called a choleric excess.

  5.  Of or pertaining to cholera; = CHOLERAIC.

1834.  Good, Study Med. (ed. 4), I. 226. The small intestines distended with an enormous quantity of choleric fluid.

1865.  Reader, No. 153. 631/3. The action of the choleric poison.

1882.  Syd. Soc. Lex., s.v., Infantile choleric fever.