Other forms: humbled, humbling
Humble is the word for someone who does not make a fuss about being good at something. The best player on the team who carries the kit bags; the writer who says the book was mostly luck.
It also means low in rank or plain in quality, with no insult attached: humble beginnings, a humble cottage, the humble potato. As a verb it means to bring someone down — the champion was humbled in the first round — and humbled is the word people reach for when an honour has left them feeling small in a good way. The adverb is humbly: she humbly accepted the award. Keep humble and humiliated apart, because being humbled can be dignified and being humiliated never is. And in my humble opinion is a fixed phrase said, almost without exception, by someone whose opinion is nothing of the kind.
1adjectivehumbleNot proud; not boasting about what you have done.
“For a man with three world titles he was remarkably humble.”
synonyms: modest, unassuming
2adjectivelowLow in rank or importance; plain and simple.
“He never forgot his humble beginnings in a two-room flat.”
3verbfeelTo make someone feel less important or less proud.
“The defeat humbled a team that had not lost all season.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
Also accepted in games: modest
Humble came through Old French from Latin humilis, low or slight, and humilis comes straight from humus, the earth, the ground. A humble person is close to the ground rather than raised above anybody. The same soil lies under humiliate, which is what happens when someone is pushed down there against their will.
Latin
humilis — low, slight, hence mean, humble
Old French
humble
Middle English
humble
English, today
humble
Built from
From Middle English humble, from Old French humble, umble, humle, from Latin humilis (“low, slight, hence mean, humble”) (compare Greek χαμηλός (“on the ground, low, trifling”)), from humus (“the earth, ground”), humi (“on the ground”). See homage, and compare chameleon, humiliate. Displaced native ēaþmōd.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA