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bile

Pronunciation: /baɪl/

The English word “bile” has 4 meanings listed here.

noun

  1. A bitter brownish-yellow or greenish-yellow secretion produced by the liver, stored in the gall bladder, and discharged into the duodenum where it aids the process of digestion.
  2. Bitterness of temper; ill humour; irascibility.
  3. Either of two of the four humours, black bile or yellow bile, in ancient and medieval physiology.
  4. A boil (kind of swelling).

Etymology

From Middle French bile, from Latin bīlis (“bile”). Partially displaced native English gall (“bile”), from Middle English galle, from Old English galla, ġealla (“gall, bile”).

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.