mood

mood, humor, temper, vein mean a temporary state or frame of mind in which one emotion or desire or one set of emotions gains the ascendancy.

Mood is the comprehensive term for any such frame of mind, regardless of its particular cause, its particular character, its effect on others, or its length of existence

{

he indulged his moods. If he were surly, he did not bother to hide it— Mailer

}

Mood carries a stronger implication of pervasiveness and of compelling power than the other terms; also, it may refer not only to the frame of mind

{

feel in a mood to work

}

{

a sullen mood

}

but to its expression in a literary or artistic work

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the language, the stresses, the very structure of the sentences are imposed upon the writer by the special mood of the piece— Cather

}

or to what is seen or heard in such a way as to evoke a mood or to harmonize with one's mood

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the mood of the landscape, achieved by the beauty of the evening light— Kenneth Clark

}

{

watching land and water, rocks and trees, and their ever-changing hues and moods— Semon

}

Humor (see also WIT 2) applies chiefly to a mood which is the result of one's peculiar temperament or of one's physical or mental condition at the moment; it may be preferable to mood when the idea of capriciousness or of whimsicality is to be suggested

{

I am not in a humor to hear you further. Leave me, please— Hardy

}

{

the women were horrified or admiring, as their humor moved them— Wharton

}

{

victims of nature's cataclysmic humors— Julian Dana

}

Temper (see also DISPOSITION 2) applies to a mood dominated by a single strong emotion, often specifically that of great anger

{

"He is in a temper!" "I never knew him so out of patience with them"— Millay

}

When qualified by an adjective indicating the controlling emotion, temper may apply to any humor that manifests itself in a display of feeling

{

that meekness has done me more harm than the bitterest temper— Hardy

}

{

she was evidently now in a gay, frolicsome temper— Hudson

}

Vein (see also TOUCH) is often used in the sense of mood but with a stronger implication of transitoriness and seldom with any suggestion of a temperamental or physical basis

{

the merry vein you knew me in, is sunk into a turn of reflection— Pope

}

{

the whole is written in a vein of ironic seriousness— Laski

}

Analogous words: *disposition, temper, temperament, character, personality, individuality: *soul, spirit: emotion, *feeling, affection