σπλήν

Forms

σπλήν (splḗn) m (genitive σπληνός); third declension^[1] Coptic borrowed it as ⲥⲉⲗⲉⲡⲓⲛ (selepin), first in a manuscript of about AD 875.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Indo-European *spl(ē)gʰ-n- (“spleen”) in Beekes's notation, but the exact preform is unclear.^[3] Several branches have similar words for the spleen, and they differ too much for a single Indo-European word to be reconstructed: Latin liēn, Sanskrit प्लीहन् (plīhán), Avestan spərəzan-, Middle Irish selg, Lithuanian blužnìs and probably Old Armenian փայծաղն (pʻaycałn).^[3][1] Chantraine explains the variation by linguistic taboo, since the spleen mattered in sacrifice, divination and medicine.^[4]

Beekes starts from a stem *σπληχ- (*splēkh-) or *σπλαχ- (*splakh-), an n-stem like the Latin word, whose nasal, anticipated, gave σπλάγχνον (splánkhnon), and σπλήν may come from *σπληχήν (*splēkhḗn) by haplology, after the monosyllable φρήν (phrḗn).^[3] Like that word and αὐχήν (aukhḗn) it is an n-stem name of a body part.^[3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It first appears in Herodotus and the Hippocratic writings, meaning the spleen or milt of animals and humans.^[5][6][7]

Semantic evolution

The Hippocratic writers use the plural for diseases of the spleen and the word for a compress of lint.^[5][3] Aristophanes' phrase “to throw out one's spleen” describes someone dying of anxiety, and the CGL takes one passage of his as “anger, annoyance”.^[5][6] In Pseudo-Dioscorides “goat's spleen” is a name of the mallow.^[5][3]

It was borrowed as Latin splēn, the source of English spleen.^[3][8][9] Medieval Greek made it feminine, Modern Greek σπλήνα (splína), from the accusative, after καρδιά (kardiá) “heart”; this is the Modern Greek word.^[10]

Timeline

• 5th century BC – Herodotus and the Hippocratic On Ancient Medicine use it for the spleen.^[5][7]
• 5th–4th century BC – Aristophanes uses “to throw out one's spleen” of a man dying of anxiety.^[5]
• About AD 875 – A Coptic manuscript has the borrowed form ⲥⲉⲗⲉⲡⲓⲛ.^[2]
• Medieval Greek – The feminine σπλήνα replaces it.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. The spleen or milt, of animals or humans.^[5][6]
2. (plural, medicine) Diseases of the spleen.^[5]
3. (medicine) A compress, the same as σπληνίον (splēníon).^[5][3]
4. (figurative) Anger, annoyance (a doubtful sense in Aristophanes).^[6]
5. “Goat's spleen”: the mallow.^[5]

Related words

• σπλάγχνον (splánkhnon)
• Latin splēn
• English spleen

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Database and Dictionary of Greek Loanwords in Coptic (DDGLC), Freie Universität Berlin and Universität Leipzig
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ a b Chantraine, Pierre (2009), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue grecque: histoire des mots, new ed. with a supplement (Chroniques d'étymologie grecque 1–10), Paris: Klincksieck
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
7. ^ a b Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
8. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
9. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki