A liver runs through it

January 20th, 2009 at 07:00am Barry Wood

The gallbladder is a sac connected to the liver to hold its excess “gall,” also known as “bile.” This fluid is secreted by the liver to aid in digestion, particularly of fats.

In ancient physiology, two biles were identified: black, thought to cause melancholy, and yellow, considered the source of anger and irritability. From the latter association, “bile” is sometimes used to mean “bitterness; anger.”

“Gall” also has its general applications. It can mean “something that is bitter or distasteful,” “bitter feeling; rancor” or “rude boldness; impudence; audacity.”

To say someone has gall, then, is not really the same as calling that person courageous. In fact, it’s actually saying that person is showing “unmitigated insolence.” It’s not a compliment, for instance, to say Americans had the gall to elect Barack Obama.

So, you might well ask, what’s “gall” doing hanging out with “audacity” in that definition? Didn’t Obama himself call one of his books “The Audacity of Hope”?

This is true. And as Webster’s says of “audacity,” it “suggests either great presumption or defiance of social conventions, morals, etc.” That second part has advocating change written all over it.

Fortunately for “audacity,” it didn’t start out as “bile,” so its principal association has remained “bold courage; daring.” This is true to its pedigree, beginning with the Latin verb “audere,” for “to dare, be bold.”

To be audacious is generally considered a good thing; to have gall is not — except after eating.

Entry Filed under: definitions, word origins