humin 
humin (hii'min), n. [< humus + -in 2 .] A neu- 
tral indifferent substance said by Mulder to 
exist in black humus. It may also be prepared 
from sugar or starch by the action of a mineral acid. Its 
composition and properties have not as yet been fully in- 
vestigated. 
2917 
They presently f etch'd In a brace of fat does, 
With humming strong liquor likewise. 
Robin Hood and Little John (Child's Ballads, V. 221). 
A glass of wine or humming beer, 
The heart and spirit for to cheer. 
Poor Robin (1735). 
Humiria (hu-mir'i-ii), n. [NL., < houmiri, mm- humming-bird (hum'ing-berd), n. Abirdwhose 
ri, umire, the native name in Guiana and Bra- 
zil.] A genus of balsamiferous shrubs or trees, 
of the natural order Humiriaeete, founded by 
Aublet in 1775. It is characterized by having 20 sta- 
mens, which are united by their base, and either all entire 
and bearing 1 anther, or with B larger, S-cleft at the apex, 
and bearing 3 anthers ; the disk is 10-lobed or 10-parted ; 
the leaves are alternate, simple, entire or crenulate ; and 
the flowers are white and arranged in cymes. Thirteen 
species are known, all natives of Guiana and Brazil. H. 
balsamifera of Guiana is a tree 40 feet high, having a red- 
dish wood used in house-building ; the bark when wound- 
ed yields a reddish balsamic juice, which is burned as a 
perfume when dry, and is also used in the preparation of 
an ointment. H. Jloribunda of Brazil is a small tree called 
umiri. Its bark is greatly esteemed by the Brazilians 
as a perfume, and when wounded yields a delightfully 
fragrant yellow balsam known as balsam of umiri, 
Humiriaceas (hu-mir-i-a'se-e), n. pi. [NL., < 
Humiria + -acece.] A small natural order of 
dicotyledonous polypetalous plants, typified by 
the genus Humiria. The species are, with one excep- 
tion, tropical South American trees or shrubs, abounding 
in a resinous juice. They are characterized by having 
regular hermaphrodite flowers, with B small imbricate 
sepals and 5 hypogynous deciduous petals, 10 or many 
hypogynous mouadelphous stamens, and a 6-celled ovary. 
The fruit is a drupe, with albuminous seed and orthotro- 
pal embryo. 
Humism (hu'mizm), n. [< Hume (see def.) + 
-ism.] The philosophical doctrines of David 
Hume. See Humian. 
Yet Berkeley in certain passages verges toward Hu- 
mism, as, for example, where he says :" The very existence 
of ideas constitutes the soul. Mind is a congeries of per- 
ceptions. Take away perceptions, and you take away 
mind. Put the perceptions, and you put the mind." 
Bibliotheca Sacra, XLV. 86. 
humite (hu'mit), n. [Named after Sir Abra- 
wings, by their rapid vibration, make a hum- 
ming sound ; any bird of the family Trochilidce. 
Humming-birds are the most brilliant as well as the small- 
est of birds, averaging under 3 inches in length, including 
the bill, which is relatively long and slender, and usually 
straight, but sometimes decurved or recurved. The tongue 
is slender and extensile, and constructed like a double- 
barreled tube ; it is used, like the haustellum of an in- 
sect^ to suck the 
sweets of flow- 
ers. The birds, 
however, also eat 
insects. They 
build a nest, gen- 
erally like a lit- 
tle cup, coated 
outside with li- 
chens, and lined 
with gossamer, 
plant-down, and 
other delicate 
in number, and 
pure white. The 
wings arenarrow 
and acute or fal- 
cate, and so rap- 
idly vibrated as 
to become indis- 
tinct to view ; 
the flight is very 
Humming-birds. 
Upper figure, Trochihts c o lubr t 's: lowerfigure, 
Amazilia fuscicaudata. 
and fitted only 
for perching, not 
for progression. 
The tail is of 
every shape, and 
sometime? longer than the rest of the bird. A few of the 
humming-birds are dull-colored, but most of them glitter 
with the most exquisite hues of iridescent quality or me- 
tallic luster, changing in different lights. Shining grass- 
ham Hume.'] Originally, a mineral from Ve- green is the most frequent color, but many other tints are 
om oll /. OTO *ol= ^.ll, t n found, as purple, Tiolet, steel-blue, golden green, crimson, 
suvius, occurring in small crystals yellow to 
brown in color, and belonging, as was believed, 
to three types of crystalline form, it was re- 
garded as identical with chondrodite. At present these 
three varieties are accepted as distinct species or sub- 
species, and are called humite, chondrodite, and clino- 
humite. The name humite includes only the kind crys- 
tallizing in the orthorhornbic system ; the other two are 
monoclinic, but differ in angles and planes. They have all 
nearly the same chemical composition, being fluosilicates 
of magnesium and iron. See chondrodite. 
humlet, a* An obsolete form of humble^. 
hummel (hum'el), v. and a. See humble^. 
hummeler (hum'el-er), n. [< hummel + -er*-."] 
II II III IIIHir^l ^ II II III Cl-Cl }, lift [_N IVWflVHWI/ 1 *JI ~.J I". lliAl II, lull UEmWW 
One who or that which humbles; specifically, WJ and Awmmw. 
pu_ __ 
and various shadesof fle'ry red, particularly about the head, 
where many species are also ornamented with crests, ruffs, 
and gorgets not less elegant in form than in color. All 
the humming-birds are confined to America, extending 
from Alaska to Patagonia, and they are especially numer- 
ous between the tropics. The latest critical authority on 
the subject describes 426 species, of 125 genera. About 16 
genera are known to occur in the United States. The com- 
monest of these, and the only one known east of the Mis- 
sissippi, is the rubythroat, Trochilus colubris. The north- 
ernmost is the rufous or Nootka Sound hummer, Selaspho- 
rus rufus. The largest in the United States is Eugenes 
fulgens, about 4 inches long. Amaziliafuscicaudata is a 
rather large one. The giants among them all reach a 
length, bill included, of about 7 inches. Also called hum- 
instrument or machine for separating the 
awns of barley from the seed, 
hummeling-machine (hum'el-ing-ma-shen"), 
. A machine for breaking off the awns of 
barley. It consists of a vertical shaft provided with 
several beaters at several different levels and revolving 
Yet by some object every brain is stirr'd : 
The dull may waken to a humming-bird. 
Pope, Dunciad, iv. 446. 
Humming-bird bush, a small leguminous shrub, JEschy- 
nomene Montevidensix, of South America : so called because 
the humming-birds are specially fond of visiting its flow- 
ers. Humming-bird hawk-moth. See hawk-moth. 
rapidly in a cylindrical case, so as to beat the grain as it hummock (hum'ok), n. [Also written hommock 
falls. E. H. Knight. 
hummer (hum'6r), . [< hum 1 + -er 1 .] 1. One 
who or that which hums. 
Loved of bee the tawny hummer. 
Emerson, To Ellen. 
Denizens of water and marsh sent forth their voices, j erky 
and out of accord with the united buzz of the hosts of field 
and wood hummers. Harper's Mag., LXXVIII. 48. 
2. One who or that which excels in any quality, 
especially in general energy or speed. [Slang. ] 
3. In ornitk., a humming-bird. Attic bummer. 
See Atticl. Helmet hummer, any bird of the subgenus 
Calypte. 
hummie (hum'i), n. [Cf . hump, hummock.] A 
small protuberance. See the quotation, and 
>,., 2. Jamieson. 
A growth on the back of the neck called a hummie, 
the result of long friction, is needful to enable a man to 
balance a plank [in discharging cargoes] with any degree 
of comfort. Nineteenth Century, XXII. 486. 
humming (hum'ing), n. [Verbal n. of hum 1 , v.] 
A sound like that made by bees; a low mur- 
muring sound. 
Good man, he's troubled with matter of more moment; 
Hummings of higher nature vex his brains, sir. 
Fletcher, Pilgrim, ii. 2. 
The musical accents of the Indians to us are but inar- 
ticulate hummings. Glanville. 
humming (hum'ing), p. a. [Ppr. of hum 1 , v.] 
1 . Resounding with hums. 
And many a rose-carnation feed 
With summer spice the humming air. 
Tennyson, In Memoriam, ci. 
2. Such as to bubble or froth much, or as to 
cause a humming in the head: applied to strong 
malt liquors. 
and hammock; perhaps an assimilated form of 
"humpocJc, dim. of hump (like hillock, dim. of 
hill 1 ); cf. LG. hiimpel, a little heap or mound: 
seehump. Cf. hummie.] 1. A low elevation, hil- 
lock, or knoll. The word was much used by the early 
navigators to designate a rounded mass of laud seen in the 
distance. It is now chiefly applied (o) to the protuber- 
ances on the surface of a mass of rough ice, particularly 
in high latitudes ; (b) to the hillocks or more or less solid 
spots rising above the general level of a swamp or of 
marshy land. Hummocks, or islets as they are sometimes 
called, constitute a marked feature of the swamps and sa- 
vannas of the southern Atlantic States, and are often cov- 
ered with dense forest-growth. 
Along a flat, level country, over delightful green savan- 
nas, decorated with hammocks or islets of dark groves 
consisting of Magnolia grandiflora. 
Bartram, Travels through North and South Carolina, etc. 
[(Lond., 1792), p. 219. 
A hummock is a protuberance raised upon any plane of 
ice above the common level. ... To hummocks, princi- 
pally, the ice is indebted for its variety of fanciful shapes, 
and its picturesque appearance. 
Scoresby, Account of Arctic Regions (Edin., 1820), I. 226. 
I have penetrated to those meadows on the morning of 
many a first spring day, jumping from hummock to hum- 
mock, from willow-root to willow-root. 
Thoreau, Walden, p. 339. 
2. (a) The form of the hand when the fingers 
are joined and bent in an even line, or bunched 
with the end of the thumb : as, to mak' a hum- 
mock, (o) As much of any loose material as 
can be taken up in the hand with the fingers 
so bent: as, a hummock of meal. [Scotch.] 
hummocked (hum'okt), a. [< hummock + -ecft.] 
Resembling a hummock; exhibiting or charac- 
terized by hummocks. 
The hills [of Iceland] are in long hummocked masses. 
Miss Oswald, 
humor 
hummocky (hum'ok-i), a. [< hummock + -y l .~] 
Abounding in or full of hummocks. 
Ice ... so hummocky that sledging over it would be 
impracticable. C. F. Hall, Polaris Expedition, p. 141. 
hummum, n. See hammam. 
humor, humour (hu'- or u'mor), . [< ME. hu- 
mour, humor, in the old med. 'sense, also (after 
L.) moisture, < OF. humor, later humeur, F. hu- 
meur, moisture, sap, juice, wet, = Pr. humor, 
umor, ymor= Sp. Pg. humor = It. umore, humor, 
= D. humeur, temper, humor, disposition, hu- 
mor, humor, sensibleness (of style), = G. humor, 
humor, humor, moisture, humor, = Dan. Sw. 
humor, humor, humor, humor, mood, temper 
(partly < F., partly < L.), < L. humor (humor-), 
correctly umor (umor-), moisture, < humere, cor- 
rectly umere, be moist : see humid.] 1. Moist- 
ure ; an exhalation. 
Lette diche it deep that humoure oute may leke. 
Palladium, Husbondrie (E. E. T. S.), p. 150. 
Is it physical 
To walk unbraced, and suck up the humours 
Of the dank morning? Shak., J. C., ii. 1. 
2. An animal fluid, whether natural or morbid; 
now, especially, any of the thinner bodily fluids, 
limpid, serous, or sanious, as the constituent 
fluids or semi-fluids of the eye, or the watery 
matter in some cutaneous eruptions. The four 
cardinal humors of ancient physicians were the blood, 
choler (yellow bile), phlegm, and melancholy (black bile), 
regarded by them as determining, by their conditions and 
proportions, a person's physical and mental qualities and 
disposition. See temperament. 
Mens bodies be not more full of ill human than com- 
monlie n tens myndes ... be full of fansies, opinions, er- 
rors, and faults. Ascham, The Scholemaster, p. 115. 
Emil. Is he not jealous? 
Des. Who, he? I think the sun, where he was born, 
Drew all such humours from him. Shak., Othello, iii. 4. 
Good Blood causeth good Humours. 
Howell, Letters, il. 64. 
Hence 3. One's special condition of mind or 
quality of feeling; peculiarity of disposition, 
permanent or temporary; mental state; mood: 
as, a surly humor; a strange humor. 
Therefore as one lackynge the quyche humure of deuo- 
cion, I cannot long contynue in prayer. 
Up. Fisher, The Seven Penitential Psalms, Ps. cxliii. 
Page. Sir Hugh is there, is he? 
Host. He is there : see what humour he is in. 
Shak., M. W. of W., ii. 3. 
The French Nation value themselves upon Civility, and 
build and dress mostly for Figure : This Humour makes 
the Curiosity of Strangers very easie and welcome to them. 
Lister, Journey to Paris, p. 2. 
Specifically (a) Disposition, especially a capricious dis- 
position ; freak ; whim ; vagary ; oddness of mood or man- 
ners : in this sense very fashionable in the time of Shak- 
spere. 
Cob. What is that humour? some rare thing, I war- 
rant. . . . 
Cash. It is a gentleman-like monster, bred in the special 
gallantry of our time, by affectation, and fed by folly. 
J5. Jonson, Every Man in his Humour, iii. 2. 
Give me leave to tell you that there is one Frailty, or ra- 
ther ill-favoured Custom, that reigns in you, which weighs 
much ; it is a Humour of swearing in all your Discourses. 
Howell, Letters, I. v. 11. 
Not thinking my self very safe, indeed, under a Man 
whose humours were so brutish and barbarous. 
Dampier, Voyages, I. 518. 
The ambiguity of the term [humour] has confounded it 
with humour itself : they are, however, so far distinct, that 
a humour that is, some absorbing singularity in a char- 
acter may not necessarily be very humorous ; it may be 
only absurd. /. D'lsraeli, Amen, of Lit., II. 241. 
The village-folk, with all their humours quaint. 
Whittier, The Countess. 
(b) A facetious or jocular turn of mind, as in conversation ; 
the disposition to find, or the faculty of finding, ludicrous 
aspects or suggestions in common facts or notions. 
To entertain an audience perpetually with humour is 
to carry them from the conversation of gentlemen, and 
treat them with the follies and extravagancies of Bedlam. 
Dryden, Mock Astrologer, Pref. 
The ancients, indeed, appear not to have possessed that 
comic quality that we understand as humour, nor can I 
discover a word which exactly corresponds with our term 
humour in any language, ancient or modern. 
/. D'lsraeli, Lit. Char., p. 434. 
Humour ... is counted something genial and loving. 
A. Bain, Emotions and Will, p. 249. 
(c) In lit., witty, droll, or jocose imagination, conspicuous 
in thought and expression, and tending to excite amuse- 
ment ; that quality in composition which is characterized 
by the predominance of the ludicrous or absurdly incon- 
gruous in the choice or treatment of a theme : distinguish- 
ed from wit, which implies superior subtlety and finer 
thought. Humor in literature may be further distin- 
guished by its humane and sympathetic quality, by force 
of which it is often found blending the pathetic with the 
ludicrous, and by the same stroke moving to tears and 
laughter, in this respect improving upon the pure and 
often cold intellectuality which is the essence of wit. 
What an ornament and safeguard is humor! Far better 
than wit for a poet and writer. It is a genius itself, and 
so defends from the insanities. Emerson, Scott. 
