spleen

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English splen, also splene,^[2][3][1] borrowed from Old French esplen, also esplien,^[4][2][5] shortened by the loss of its first syllable,^[6][7][8] or directly borrowed from Latin splēn (“spleen, milt”);^[4][2][9] Partridge thought the Latin source the likelier.^[10] The Anglo-Norman form is recorded from the 13th century, of the organ thought to produce black bile.^[11] The Latin word is from Ancient Greek σπλήν (splḗn, “the spleen, milt”),^{[4][3][12][13]} which Barnhart and Klein relate to σπλάγχνα (splánkhna, “the inward parts”),^{[2][14][6][5]} the source of splanchnic.^[5] Its cognates include liēn (“spleen”), Old Irish selg, Lithuanian blužnis and Avestan spərəzan-.^[2][14][3] Etymonline gives Proto-Indo-European *spelghn- (“spleen, milt”) but calls the exact form unclear;^[3] Barnhart says that changes made through taboo have made the Indo-European original almost impossible to reconstruct.^[2] The OED notes that the Latin word lived on in many Italian dialects and in Romanian splină, while splene is learned.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The abdominal organ: before 1300, in Vox and Wolf in MS Digby 86.^[4] Etymonline dates splen to about 1300, already also as the seat of melancholy,^[3] and Barnhart to probably before 1300.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In medieval physiology each internal organ was held to be the seat of a particular emotion,^[5] and the spleen was credited with conflicting ones, both melancholy and mirth;^[5][7] Gower uses both in the Confessio Amantis (1390).^[4][2] The mirthful spleen was especially common about 1600,^[4] and Shakespeare stretched the word to merriment (1598), a sudden whim (1594), caprice (1598), a hot or proud temper (1599) and impetuosity, senses that died out in the early 17th century.^[4][6] The sense that survived is bad temper, which Barnhart says developed from low spirits: it is found in Shakespeare's Richard III (1594),^[2] and Etymonline sees it implied in spleenful (1588).^[3] The late 16th and early 17th centuries produced a burst of adjectives for it, spleenative (1592), spleenish (1610s) and spleeny (1604) among them,^[3] and splenetic took the sense "irritable" in 1592.^[2] Johnson (1755) defined the organ as "supposed the seat of anger and melancholy", and gave the senses "anger; spite; ill-humour" and "a fit of anger", quoting Dryden's "thus they vent their spleen aloud".^[15] The sense of deep low spirits, melancholy, is recorded from the mid 17th century and is now archaic;^[6][16] in that sense French borrowed the English word back as French spleen.^[17][4] Today the ill-humour sense lives on chiefly in a fit of spleen and vent one's spleen.^[6][16] The verb, formed from the noun, meant to regard with spleen or bear a grudge (from before 1629) and to make angry (1689–1805); an American intransitive use, to feel deep anger, dates from 1885.^[4][6]

Timeline

• before 1300 – the abdominal organ.^[4]
• 1390 – the organ as the seat of melancholy, and of mirth (Gower).^[4][2]
• 1588 – ill temper, implied in spleenful.^[3]
• 1594 – a sudden impulse or whim; bad temper, in Richard III.^[4][2]
• 1598 – merriment, gaiety (obsolete by 1616).^[4]
• before 1629 – verb, to regard with spleen, bear a grudge against.^[4]
• mid 17th century – low spirits, melancholy.^[6]
• 1741 – verb, to remove the spleen of.^[4]
• 1885 – verb, in the United States, to feel deep anger.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A vascular organ in the abdomen near the stomach that filters the blood, breaks down worn-out red blood cells and helps the immune system; also the corresponding organ in other vertebrates.^[16][9][4]
2. Spite, bad temper or peevishness: She vented her spleen on the referee.^[16][6][15]
3. (archaic) Low spirits; melancholy.^[16][6]
4. (archaic) The spleen thought of as the seat of the emotions.^[16][4]
5. (obsolete, 1598–1616) Merriment, mirth.^[4][6]
6. (obsolete, 1594–1625) A sudden impulse; a whim or caprice.^[4][6]

Verb

1. To make angry; to rouse the anger of.^[9][4]
2. (US) To feel or show deep anger.^[4][6]
3. To remove the spleen of.^[4]

Word family

• spleeny
• spleenish
• spleenful
• spleenwort

Related words

• splenomegaly
• splenectomy
• splenetic
• splenic
• spleno-
• splen-
• splanchnic

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
11. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
12. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
13. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
14. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
15. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
16. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
17. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray