humbling, rumbling (of wind blasts); Stanyhurst, tr. Aeneid (ed. Arber, 19); buzzing as a bee (ed. Arber, 31).
humdrum, a commonplace fellow; ‘Stand still humdrum’, Butler, Hudibras, i. 3. 112; ‘A consort for every humdrum’, B. Jonson, Every Man in Hum. i. 1 (Stephen).
humect, to moisten. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 11 (end). L. humectare, humectus, wet; humere, umere, to be wet.
humorous, moist, humid, damp; ‘Every lofty top, which late the humorous night Bespangled had with pearle’, Drayton, Pol. xiii. 214; ‘The humorous night’, Romeo, ii. 1. 31; with play on sense of fanciful, whimsical, humoursome, L. L. L. iii. 1. 177; moody, ill-humoured, As You Like It, i. 2. 278.
humour; in ancient and mediaeval physiology, one of the four chief fluids (blood, phlegm, choler, melancholy) by the relative proportions of which a man’s physical and mental qualities were supposed to be determined; hence, mental disposition, temperament, mood. L. L. L. v. 1. 10; Merry Wives, ii. 3. 80. See Schmidt’s Shakespeare-Lexicon (s.v.); also, B. Jonson’s Every Man in Humour (H. B. Wheatley’s account of the word in Introduction, pp. xxx-xxxiv).
Humphrey; see [Duke Humphrey].
hunte, hunt, a hunter, huntsman. Golding, Metam. viii. 359; Gascoigne, Art of Venerie, ed. Hazlitt, ii. 313; Drant, tr. of Horace, Sat. i. 1 (NED.). OE. hunta, a huntsman (Chron., ann. 1127); hence Hunt as a proper name.
hunt’s-up, the hunt is up; a tune played to awaken huntsmen. Romeo, iii. 5. 34; the hunt is up, Titus Andron. ii. 2. 1; Fletcher, Bonduca, ii. 4 (near the end).
hurle, strife, commotion. Mirror for Mag., Glocester, st. 27. ME. hurl, or debate, ‘sedicio’ (Prompt.). See below.
hurlwind, a tempestuous wind. Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, i. 8. Cp. the Cumberland word ‘hurl’ for a tempest, see EDD. (s.v. Hurl, sb.3 11). ME. hurle, rush, noise (of the sea); hurling, roaring (Wars Alex.).