splen

Forms

splēn m (genitive splēnis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek σπλήν (splḗn, “spleen, milt”).^[2][3][4][1] The inherited Latin word for the organ is liēn, which Wiktionary treats as its doublet.^[1][5] Etymonline traces the Greek word to Proto-Indo-European *spelghn- (“spleen, milt”).^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Vitruvius,^[5] in the sense of the spleen.^[7]

Semantic evolution

Pliny the Elder and Columella use it for the spleen.^[3][8] Persius makes it the seat of laughter, calling himself a laugher “with a wanton spleen” (sum petulanti splene cachinno).^[3][9] Isidore of Seville explains that we laugh with the spleen, grow angry with the gall, are wise with the heart and love with the liver.^[10]

In medieval Latin from Britain it is the spleen, also as the seat of laughter, and a quartan fever is said to come from it.^[11] English spleen comes from it through Old French.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 84–c. 25 BC – Vitruvius uses it for the spleen.^[5][7]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it for the spleen.^[3][5]
• 34–62 AD – Persius makes the spleen the seat of laughter.^[3][5]
• c. 560–636 AD – Isidore of Seville names the spleen as the organ of laughter.^[10][5]
• c. 1300 – English borrows it, through Old French, as spleen.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. The spleen, milt.^[2][3]
2. (figurative) The spleen as the seat of laughter or of the humours.^[3][7][11]

Word family

• splēnĭcus

Related words

• English spleen

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
5. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
8. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
9. ^ Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
10. ^ a b Isidore of Seville, Etymologiarum sive Originum libri XX, ed. W. M. Lindsay (Oxford, 1911).
11. ^ a b Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press