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USA Today Crossword Spotlights Ancient Medicine with 'Bile' Clue

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  Published in Humor and Quirks on Thursday, December 18th 2025 at 4:27 GMT by USA Today
      Locale: New York, UNITED STATES

Decoding a Curious Crossword Clue: “Word in Two of Hippocrates’ Four Humors”

On December 18, 2025, USA Today published a brief but intriguing note in its crossword puzzle column that captured the attention of puzzlers and history buffs alike. The article, titled “Word in two of Hippocrates’ four humors crossword clue,” centers on a single cryptic clue that, while deceptively simple, opens up a fascinating window into ancient medical theory, the evolution of language, and the art of crossword construction. In this article we’ll walk through the clue itself, the solution, the historical backdrop of Hippocrates’ humoral theory, and why the answer “BILE” is a perfect fit for this playful puzzle.

The Clue in Question

The crossword puzzle in question, found in the USA Today daily puzzle released that morning, presents the following clue for a four‑letter answer:

Word in two of Hippocrates’ four humors

At first glance the clue looks like a straightforward fill‑in‑the‑blank question. But crossword designers often embed a little double‑talk: a hint that the answer is a common English word that also happens to be embedded in two of the names of Hippocrates’ famed four bodily fluids. The challenge lies in recognizing that “humors” here refers to the ancient Greek notion of bodily fluids, not to a collection of jokes or jokes‑filled anecdotes.

The Four Humors and Their Names

The clue assumes that the solver is familiar with the four humors—a cornerstone of ancient Greek medicine that persisted into the Middle Ages. Hippocrates, the so‑called “Father of Medicine,” described four distinct bodily fluids and associated each with a particular temperament:

1. Blood – warm and moist; associated with an sanguine disposition.
2. Phlegm – cool and moist; associated with a phlegmatic temperament.
3. Yellow Bile – warm and dry; associated with a choleric temperament.
4. Black Bile – cool and dry; associated with a melancholic temperament.

Notice that each humor is identified by a compound phrase that contains a common English noun: blood, phlegm, bile (in two different contexts). The clue’s wording invites solvers to find a word that is literally present in the names of two of the humors.

Why “Bile” Is the Correct Answer

If you look closely at the list, the word bile appears twice:

• Yellow Bile
• Black Bile

No other single English word appears in two of the four humor names. “Blood” is only in “blood”; “phlegm” is only in “phlegm”; “yellow” is only in “yellow bile”; “black” is only in “black bile.” Thus the answer that satisfies the clue is BILE.

In addition to satisfying the literal requirement, the answer also brings an extra layer of wordplay. In modern English, “bile” has a slang meaning—often used to denote bitterness or anger (“to spit bile” in a figurative sense). Thus the crossword designer has added a pun, as the answer is simultaneously a term from ancient medicine and a word that “makes sense” in contemporary vernacular. Crossword aficionados love such moments of dual meaning, and the USA Today column highlighted this nuance.

The Historical Context: Hippocrates and the Humors

The article takes a moment to educate readers on the origin of the humoral theory. While the clue itself is a neat puzzle trick, the real intellectual gem is the story of how these four fluids came to be thought of as the key to human health and temperament.

Hippocrates (c. 460 – 370 BCE), a Greek physician from Kos, is credited with shifting medicine from superstition to a more systematic, observation‑based approach. He and his contemporaries believed that the body’s balance of blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile dictated not only physical health but also mental disposition. The four temperaments—sanguine, phlegmatic, choleric, and melancholic—still appear in modern psychology as archetypes of personality.

Although the humoral theory was later disproved, it lingered in European medicine for centuries, influencing everything from prescribing herbs to determining surgical procedures. By the 19th century, it was largely abandoned, but its legacy remains in our language: “bile,” “melancholy,” “sanguine,” and “phlegmatic” all survive as common adjectives describing moods and colors.

The Craft of Crossword Clue Construction

The USA Today article also used this simple clue as a teaching moment for how crossword constructors play with language. The clue is a “straightforward definition” followed by a “hidden word” component. While the answer is a normal English word, the clue also relies on the solver’s knowledge of historical terminology. The article notes that many puzzles in the USA Today column feature similar “double‑meaning” clues, encouraging solvers to think beyond the literal and tap into their general knowledge.

In particular, the clue can be classified as a “wordplay/definition” style: the definition part is “Word,” which simply tells us the answer is a word; the wordplay is the phrase “in two of Hippocrates’ four humors,” which narrows down the possibilities. The puzzle’s author has done a good job of balancing difficulty: the answer is short (four letters) but not immediately obvious to someone who hasn't studied the humoral theory.

Why the Clue Resonated

Because of its layered nature, the clue garnered a flurry of social‑media comments. Many solvers posted their “aha” moments on Twitter and Reddit, praising the author’s cleverness. Others pointed out the modern connotation of “bile,” creating a small joke thread about “spitting bile” in the context of a crossword puzzle. The article itself noted that such engagement is part of why USA Today keeps publishing crossword puzzles in its daily column—it is not just about finding the right letter; it’s also about sparking conversation and learning something new.

Conclusion

The December 18, 2025 USA Today crossword puzzle and its accompanying article demonstrate how a single, deceptively simple clue can open a door to a broader cultural conversation. The answer BILE satisfies a literal word‑in‑phrase requirement, while simultaneously nodding to an ancient medical theory that has shaped Western thought for millennia. By unpacking this clue, the article invites readers to appreciate the craft of crossword design, the history behind the words we use, and the unexpected joy of solving a puzzle that’s both an intellectual challenge and a historical trivia exercise.

For puzzle enthusiasts, historians, or anyone curious about the intersection of language and science, this clue is a perfect example of how the past can still make us think—and grin—today.