Humorist

A humorist is a person who is skillful in the use of humor, as in writing, talking, or acting. However, centuries ago, the term humorist had a different connotation and was more related to physiology and medicine than to a subjective quality of mind, either natural or assumed. Therefore, this entry discusses the evolution of the term before contrasting it against its current potential synonyms in the field of humor, such as entertainer, comedian, and satirist, which all denote self-conscious creators of a product called humor.

Humorist, as a term, was first used in the early 17th century to refer to an objective character controlled by his unbalanced temperament. Deeply rooted in physiology and medicine, humorist also meant a person who attributes diseases to the state ...