phlegmatic

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   Not easily excited to action or passion; calm; sluggish.

   Calm and phlegmatic, with a clear eye, Mr. Fogg seemed a perfect type of that English composure which Angelica Kauffmann has so skilfully represented on canvas.

2. 2
   adj

   Generating, causing, or full of phlegm.

   Cold and phlegmatic bodies.

Simplified etymology

Phlegmatic derives from phlegm, ultimately from Greek phlegma, “inflammation,” itself formed from phlegein, “to burn.” Under the medieval theory of the four humours, excess phlegm was believed to make a person stolidly calm, and by late Middle English phlegmatic meant “calm and self-possessed.”

From Middle English fleumatik, flewmatik, flematik, fleumatyke, flewmatyk, from Old French fleumatique, from Latin phlegmaticus, from Ancient Greek φλεγματικός (phlegmatikós), from φλέγμα (phlégma), referring to the humour which ancient Hippocratic and later Galenic medicine associated with mildness, coldness, sluggishness, and indifference. Spelling later altered to resemble the word's Latin and Greek roots, with modern pronunciation following this new spelling.

Topics

External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary