spleen

Forms

spleen m (plural spleens)^[1] Early spellings were splene (1655, 1745) and, after the English pronunciation, spline (Diderot, 1760; also Voltaire).^[2][3][4] It was briefly feminine in 1748.^[4][2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from English spleen, properly the name of the organ itself, and then of the spleen as the seat of melancholy.^[4][2][3] The English word came from Latin either directly or through Anglo-Norman esplen (late 13th century, Bibbesworth), and goes back to Latin splēn, from Ancient Greek σπλήν (splḗn, “spleen”).^[4][5] The usual Latin name of the organ was liēn.^[4][2] The sense came from old medicine, which placed the cause of melancholy in the spleen.^[3][6][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Leblanc's Lettres d’un François (1745) is the first record the TLFi gives; the DHLF and the Petit Robert give 1737.^[4][2][8] In 1750 Prévost called it the illness peculiar to the English, which the French named spline after them.^[4]

Semantic evolution

In the 18th century the word was used of the English: Diderot wrote of le spline, ou les vapeurs anglaises.^[2] It spread in the 19th century among the Romantics and their successors, and with Baudelaire, whose Spleen et Idéal is a part of Les Fleurs du mal.^[2][8] It is now literary, for a melancholy without apparent cause and a disgust with everything.^[2][8][4]

English spleen had meant the organ from about 1300, the seat of black bile from 1390 and melancholy from 1664.^[2][5]

Timeline

• 1655 – An isolated splene.^[2]
• 1737 – Date of first record in the DHLF and the Petit Robert.^[2][8]
• 1745 – Spleen in Leblanc's Lettres d’un François.^[4][9]
• 1748 – Used as a feminine noun.^[4][9]
• 1760 – Diderot writes spline.^[4][2]
• 1763 – Spleen in Favart.^[4][10]
• 1776 – Splénétique is borrowed from English splenetic.^[3][2]
• 1860 – Spleenétique is used by the Goncourts.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (literary) A melancholy without apparent cause, a weariness and disgust with life: il traînait son spleen dans les rues pluvieuses.^{[8][11][4][7]}

Word family

• spleenétique

Related words

• splénétique
• splénique
• Latin splēn
• English spleen

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 m n Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b c d Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
5. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
7. ^ a b Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)
8. ^ a b c d e Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ a b Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF
10. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
11. ^ Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)