χολερικός

Choleric derives from Greek cholerikos, from cholē (bile, gall). In humoral medicine, the choleric temperament was caused by an excess of yellow bile — the hot, dry humor associated with fire and summer. Choleric people were quick to anger, ambitious, driven, and domineering. They reddened easily, spoke loudly, and made decisions without hesitation. The bile inside them was understood to be literally hot.

The choleric temperament was the leader's temperament. Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, and medieval kings were described as choleric — not as an insult but as a statement about their humor-driven nature. Choler made you ambitious and decisive. The same bile that caused anger also caused courage. The word did not separate the virtues from the vices because humoral medicine did not believe they were separable.

English borrowed 'choleric' in the fourteenth century. Shakespeare used it frequently: Hotspur in Henry IV is choleric, Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet is choleric, Kate in The Taming of the Shrew is described as choleric. The word was a character-typing tool — tell an Elizabethan audience that a character was choleric, and they knew what to expect: fast speech, quick fists, poor patience.

The word 'cholera' shares the same root — the disease was named for the bilious symptoms it produced. The temperament and the disease diverged in meaning but remained connected by etymology. Yellow bile, real or imagined, anchors both words to the same Greek noun.