Humdudgeon

Humdudgeon is a Scots word of eighteenth-century vintage, it has appeared infrequently but usually seems to refer to a depressed state or to what was once described as "meaning something like accidie (from Ancient Greek akḗdeia [ἀκήδεια], meaning 'indifference'), or being down in the hypochondriac dumps".

That it has also been glossed as an imaginary malady and a needless fuss about nothing probably reflects the view of earlier generations about mental illness.

The word 'humdudgeon' is probably a blend of humbug, a humming bug (or the sound of a bumblebee) and dudgeon, a feeling of anger or resentment. It is first recorded in the Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue by Captain Francis Grose (1785). The entry read:

Hum Durgeon, an imaginary illness; he has got the hum durgeon, the thickest part of his thigh is nearest his arse, i.e. nothing ails him except low spirits.

In the winter of 1826-7 when Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832) was suffering badly from rheumatism and some other ailments, he gloomily recorded in his Diary:

February 26, 1627: At home, and settled to work; but I know not why I was out of spirits — quite Laird of Humdudgeon, and did all I could to shake it off, and could not. February 27: Humdudgeonish still; hang it, what fools we are! I worked, but coldly and ill. Yet something is done. I wonder if other people have these strange alternations of industry and incapacity.

The word has been so long obsolete that it has dropped out of most dictionaries.

In short, humdudgeon is an imaginary illness or body slump, such as might appear on a Sunday evening when you suddenly realize that the weekend is almost over.

No, the word humdudgeon has nothing to do with the English actor Neil Dudgeon, who, since 2010, has played DCI John Barnaby in the drama series Midsomer Murders. He replaced John Nettles in the lead role in 2011.