Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A person with a good sense of humor.
  • noun A performer or writer of humorous material.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun One who attributes all diseases to a depraved state of the humors; a humoralist.
  • noun A person who acts according to his humor; one easily moved by fancy, whim, or caprice; a person of eccentric conduct or uncertain temper.
  • noun A person who possesses the faculty of humor; one who entertains by the exercise of a comical fancy; a humorous talker, writer, or actor; a wag; a droll.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Med.), archaic One who attributes diseases of the state of the humors.
  • noun One who has some peculiarity or eccentricity of character, which he indulges in odd or whimsical ways.
  • noun One who displays humor in speaking or writing; one who has a facetious fancy or genius; a wag; a droll; especially, one who writes or tells jokes as a profession.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A person who writes or performs humorous material.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun someone who acts speaks or writes in an amusing way

Etymologies

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Examples

  • I manage hardly to mention TMC - the term humorist/chauvinist (delete according to taste)

    The Guardian World News Stephen Moss 2010

  • "Thoughts on the Universe" has something in common with these, but he appears also to have a good deal about him of what we call the humorist; that is, an individual with a somewhat heterogeneous personality, in which various distinctly human elements are mixed together, so as to form

    Complete Project Gutenberg Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. Works Oliver Wendell Holmes 1851

  • "Thoughts on the Universe" has something in common with these, but he appears also to have a good deal about him of what we call the humorist; that is, an individual with a somewhat heterogeneous personality, in which various distinctly human elements are mixed together, so as to form a kind of coherent and sometimes pleasing whole, which is to a symmetrical character as a breccia is to a mosaic.

    The Poet at the Breakfast-Table Oliver Wendell Holmes 1851

  • Howard Stern, Andrew “Dice” Clay, Sam Kinison, Eddie Murphy, etc. A great humorist is like a test pilot; they have to push the outside of the comedy envelope.

    Think Progress » Tucker Carlson’s new website kicks off with jokes about rape, being gay. 2010

  • Political humor works best when the humorist is willing to attack targets regardless of where they are on the political spectrum.

    The Volokh Conspiracy » Rehabilitating Pharaoh 2010

  • The humorist is a philosopher who breaks the sad news gently because he is so sorry for the world.

    Maxims and Light Verse 1995

  • One of the occupational hazards of being described as a humorist is that you get asked a lot how to write funny.

    Wisecracks as Wisdom Steve Almond 2011

  • Although he's called a humorist, any reader of his Discworld books know that the humor has long since left behind the slapstick and moved into a sharper, darker bent.

    REVIEW: Nation by Terry Pratchett 2009

  • Once classified as a humorist, he may have done more than any other modern thinker to shape the image of Jews.

    A Mensch for All Seasons 2009

  • The producers shockingly went outside the Bond camp to find a new director (Martin Campbell, who, as it happens, also directs Royale) and new screenwriters (Jeffrey Caine, who was nominated for an Oscar just last year for his screenplay for The Constant Gardener, and Bruce Feirstein, better known as a humorist, and who gave the Bond dialog some real kick).

    2006 November « Whatever 2006

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