Noun: phlegm
| Singular | phlegm |
| Plural | phlegms |
Sample Sentences
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Each person's unique mixture of these substances determines his temperament: a predominance of blood gives a sanguine temperament; a predominance of phlegm makes one phlegmatic; yellow bile, bilious (or choleric); and black bile, melancholic. [1993, William Dalrymple, City of Djinns, HarperCollins:]
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Even some members of the new bourgeoisie indulge in conspicuously boorish behavior, like hawking phlegm onto the pavement or picking their noses at business meetings. [2005, "Endangered Species?" Hannah Beech, Time, 14 Nov 2005]
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The attempts made to analyse vegetable substances previous to 1720, merely produced their resolution into the supposed elements of the chemists of those days, namely, salts, Earths, phlegm, and sulphur. [1812, Humphry Davy, The Elements of Chemical Philosophy, Introduction, Part I. Vol. I, pp. 50-51:]
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Orloff's phlegm broke completely, and he snatched at the monocle as it dropped[.] [1941, Isaac Asimov, The Early Asimov, Volume 2, published 1974, page 180:]
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But Swedish Nazis also talked of the necessity of saving Sweden from Bolshevism, and with the menacing Berlin radio gnawing in their ears many Swedes lost their Scandinavian phlegm. [1942 October 5, “Warning to Sweden”, in Time:]
Nouns inflected like phlegm
soldier's woundwort,
Nicosian,
whopper,
greypate,
tactile sign language,
chronotrope,
Rosie Lee,
dissentient,
photoinactivator,
sulphonediimine,
coastal waterfall,
residuary devise,
bituminization,
nitrosonaphthol,
smṛiti,
geosphere,
backscreen,
mensuralist,
flocculate,
flocculant, etc. (List truncated at 20 nouns)
Etymology
1. From Middle English flewme, fleume, fleme, from Old French fleume, Middle French flemme (French flegme), and their source, Latin phlegma, from Ancient Greek φλέγμα (phlégma, “flame; inflammation; clammy humor in the body”), from φλέγειν (phlégein, “to burn”). Possible burning sensation when coughing up phlegm. Compare phlox, flagrant, flame, bleak (adjective), fulminate. Spelling later altered to resemble the word's Latin and Greek roots.
2. The regularly developed form /fliːm/ has been displaced by a pronunciation /flɛm/ of uncertain provenance. It may be inherited, though some kind of learned or spelling pronunciation or influence from phlegmatic is also conceivable. See: Middle English Nouns '
flewme', French Nouns '
flegme', Latin Nouns '
phlegma', Ancient Greek Nouns '
φλέγμα'.