mood

mood¹

/moohd/, n.

1. a state or quality of feeling at a particular time: What's the boss' mood today?

2. a distinctive emotional quality or character: The mood of the music was almost funereal.

3. a prevailing emotional tone or general attitude: the country's mood.

4. a frame of mind disposed or receptive, as to some activity or thing: I'm not in the mood to see a movie.

5. a state of sullenness, gloom, or bad temper.

[bef. 900; ME; OE mod mind, spirit; courage; c. G Mut, Goth moths courage, ON mothr anger]

Syn. 1. temper, humor, disposition, inclination.

mood²

/moohd/, n.

1. Gram.

a. a set of categories for which the verb is inflected in many languages, and that is typically used to indicate the syntactic relation of the clause in which the verb occurs to other clauses in the sentence, or the attitude of the speaker toward what he or she is saying, as certainty or uncertainty, wish or command, emphasis or hesitancy.

b. a set of syntactic devices in some languages that is similar to this set in function or meaning, involving the use of auxiliary words, as can, may, might.

c. any of the categories of these sets: the Latin indicative, imperative, and subjunctive moods.

2. Logic. a classification of categorical syllogisms by the use of three letters that name, respectively, the major premise, the minor premise, and the conclusion. Also called mode.

[1525-35; special use of MOOD¹ by influence of MODE¹]

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or mode

In grammar, a category that reflects the speaker's view of an event's reality, likelihood, or urgency.

Often marked by special verb forms (inflections), moods include the indicative, for factual or neutral situations (e.g., "You did your work"); the imperative, to convey commands or requests ("Do your work"); and the subjunctive. The subjunctive's functions vary widely. It may express doubt, possibility, necessity, desire, or future time. In English it often indicates a condition contrary to fact (e.g., "If he were to work here, he would have to learn to be punctual").

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▪ grammar

also called  mode 

      in grammar, a category that reflects the speaker's view of the ontological character of an event. This character may be, for example, real or unreal, certain or possible, wished or demanded. Mood is often marked by special verb forms, or inflections, but it is sometimes expressed by a single word or a phrase.

      Languages frequently distinguish grammatically three moods: the indicative, the imperative, and the subjunctive. The indicative is generally used for factual or neutral situations, as in English “John did his work” and Spanish “Juan hizo su trabajo.” The imperative conveys commands or requests—for example, “Do your work.” It is distinguished by the absence of an explicit subject, the implied subject being “you.” The Spanish imperative, which also possesses an implied subject, assumes a distinct verbal form, as in “Haga su trabajo.” The functions of the subjunctive mood vary widely across languages. Some notions often expressed by the subjunctive are doubt, possibility, necessity, desire, and future time. The English subjunctive is fairly limited in its use. Usually, it is found only in formal styles, such as the sentence “It is necessary that he be ready on time.” More often, subjunctive meanings are expressed by modal auxiliary verbs, such as can, must, or may, as in “He must be ready on time.”

      Other moods sometimes grammaticalized in languages include conditional, hortative (urging), dubitative (doubting), optative (wishing), hypothetical, and potential.

▪ logic

      in logic, the classification of categorical syllogisms according to the quantity (universal or particular) and quality (affirmative or negative) of their constituent propositions. There are four forms of propositions: A (universal affirmative), E (universal negative), I (particular affirmative), and O (particular negative). Because each syllogism has three propositions and each proposition may take four different forms, there are 64 different patterns (moods) of syllogisms. Twenty-four of the 64 possible moods are valid, though only 19 were traditionally accepted as valid. Various mnemonic terms are employed to label these moods. The vowels of these terms represent the forms of propositions in the syllogism. For example, “Felapton” is the mnemonic term to signify the mood in which the major premise (the premise containing the predicate of the conclusion) of the syllogism is an E proposition, the minor premise (the premise containing the subject of the conclusion) is an A, and the conclusion is an O.

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