Phlegm - Language Log

« previous post | next post »

My sister Heidi and I agree that, though we dislike the substance, we like the word.  Somehow, the shape and sound of the word are captivating.  "Phlegm", with its five consonants and one vowel, rolls up out of your throat, flows across your tongue, and issues forth through your lips.  "Phlegm"!  What a singular word!

A curious thing about "phlegm" is that, in two of its adjectival forms, "phlegmy" and "phlegmish", the velar stays hidden, but in the other, "phlegmatic", it comes back to life.

phlegm (n.)

late 14c., fleem, fleume, "viscid mucus, discharge from a mucous membrane of the body," also the name of one of the four bodily humors, from Old French fleume (13c., Modern French flegme), from Late Latin phlegma, one of the four humors of the body, from Greek phlegma "morbid, clammy bodily humor caused by heat;" literally "inflammation, flame, fire, heat," from phlegein "to burn," related to phlox (genitive phlogos) "flame, blaze," from PIE *bhleg- "to shine, flash," from root *bhel- (1) "to shine, flash, burn."

The modern form of the word is attested by c. 1660. In old physiology it was the "cold, moist" humor of the body and a predominance of it was believed to cause dullness, lethargy, and apathy, hence phlegmatic.

phlegmy (adj.)

early 15c., fleumi, "caused by an excess of phlegm (the bodily humor);" mid-15c., "sluggish;" from phlegm (q.v.) + -y (2). In reference to mucous or watery discharge by 1540s.

phlegmatic (adj.)

mid-14c., fleumatik, "having the temperament formerly supposed to result from predominance of the bodily humor phlegm" (cool, calm, self-possessed, and in a pejorative sense, cold, dull, apathetic;) late 14c., "composed of phlegm (the bodily humor); containing phlegm," from Old French fleumatique (13c., Modern French flegmatique), from Late Latin phlegmaticus, from Greek phlegmatikos "abounding in phlegm" (see phlegm). Related: Phlegmatical; phlegmatically.

A verry flewmatike man is in the body lustles, heuy and slow. [Bartholomew Glanville, "De proprietatibus rerum," c. 1240, translated by John of Trevisa c. 1398]

(source)

phlegm

From Middle English flewme, fleume, fleme, from Old French fleume, Middle French flemme (French flegme), and their source, Latin phlegma, from Ancient Greek φλέγμα (phlégma, “flame; inflammation; clammy humor in the body”), from φλέγειν (phlégein, “to burn”). Compare phlox, flagrant, flame, bleak (adjective), fulminate. Spelling later altered to resemble the word's Latin and Greek roots.

(source)

Another curious aspect of "phlegm", which betokens cold and moist in ancient and medieval humoral medical thought, is that it derives from a PIE root meaning "shine; flash; burn".  This is quite the opposite of what we normally think of as a phlegmatic temperament — calm and composed — or, considered pejoratively, sluggish and indifferent.

Just sayin'.

Selected readings

"Sneeze, hiccup, cough" (12/19/13)

"China and Rome" (2/24/19) — here, here, and here

February 14, 2021 @ 9:25 pm · Filed by Victor Mair under Etymology, Language and medicine, Words words words

Permalink