Definitions
Sorry, no definitions found. Check out and contribute to the discussion of this word!
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word humoral diversity.
Examples
Sorry, no example sentences found.
chained_bear commented on the word humoral diversity
"Within the category of spices, just as among meats and different sorts of fish, there was a certain humoral diversity. Mace and nutmeg were considered hot and dry in the second degree. Pepper was even hotter but similar in its degree of dryness. Ginger was also quite hot (in the third degree), but unusual among spices in that it was moist (in the second degree). Spices could themselves be tempered if they seemed to be too hot for the food they were seasoning. Vinegar, which was humorally cold, was especially useful to accompany spices in the summer. ...
At times, however, theories yielded to popular preference, as in the persistent consumption of lampreys, or were dealt with by a kind of compromise. The habit of eating prosciutto with melon began in late-medieval and Renaissance Italy because the salty, humoral warmth of the ham would allay some of the danger posed by the cold, moist melon. Initially, however, salty cheeses, pickled herring, or caviar were recommended."
Paul Freedman, Out of the East: Spices and the Medieval Imagination (New Haven and London: Yale UP, 2008), 56-57
November 27, 2017