kidney
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈkɪdni/
rhymes: -ɪdni
Forms: form: kidneys
Etymology: From Middle English kedney, kydeney, from earlier kidnēre, kidenēre (“kidney”), of obscure origin and formation. Probably a compound consisting of Middle English *kid, *quid (“belly, womb”), from Old English cwiþ, cwiþa (“belly, womb, stomach”) + Middle English nēre (“kidney”), from Old English *nēora (“kidney”), from Proto-West Germanic *neurō, from Proto-Germanic *neurô (“kidney”), from Proto-Indo-European *negʷʰr- (“kidney”). If so, then related to dialectal English near (“kidney”), Scots nere, neir (“kidney”), Saterland Frisian Njuure (“kidney”), Dutch nier (“kidney”), German Niere (“kidney”), Danish nyre (“kidney”), Norwegian nyre (“kidney”), Swedish njure (“kidney”), Ancient Greek νεφρός (nephrós).
Alternate etymology traces the first element to Old English *cydde (“sack, belly, scrotum”), from Proto-Germanic *kuddijā (“sack”) as the terms for testicle and kidney were often interchangeable in Germanic (compare Old High German nioro (“kidney", also "testicle”), Old Swedish vig-niauri (“testicle”)). More at codpiece.
Senses: examples: text: The liver and the kidneys of animals have long been gastronomically popular for their aphrodisiac properties.
ref: 1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page 124:
text: An artificial kidney these days still means a refrigerator-sized dialysis machine. Such devices mimic the way real kidneys cleanse blood and eject impurities and surplus water as urine.
ref: 2013 June 1, “A better waterworks”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8838, page 5 (Technology Quarterly):
glosses: An organ in the body that filters the blood, producing urine.
glosses: This organ (of an animal) cooked as food.
examples: text: […] think of that, – a man of my kidney, – think of that, […]
ref: c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merry Wiues of Windsor”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, (please specify the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals)]:
text: Millions in the World of this Man's Kidney
ref: 1692, Roger L’Estrange, “ (please specify the fable number.) (please specify the name of the fable.)”, in Fables, of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists: […], London: […] R[ichard] Sare, […], →OCLC:
text: 30th June, 1788, Robert Burns, letter to Mr Robert Ainslie
Your poets, spendthrifts, and other fools of that kidney, pretend, forsooth, to crack their jokes on prudence.
text: I shall not want Honour in Heaven
 For I shall meet Sir Philip Sidney
And have talk with Coriolanus
 And other heroes of that kidney.
ref: 1920, T.S. Eliot, A Cooking Egg:
glosses: Constitution, temperament, nature, type, character, disposition. (usually used of people)
examples: text: I once more desire my readers to consider that as I cannot keep an ingenious man to go daily to Will's under twopence each day merely for his charges, to White's under sixpence, nor to the Grecian without allowing him some plain Spanish, to be as able as others at the learned table; and that a good observer cannot speak with even Kidney at St. James's without clean linen; […]
ref: 1709, Richard Steele, The Tatler, volume 1:
glosses: A waiter.
Synonyms: rein
nephros
ren
Derived terms: acute kidney failure
acute kidney injury
antikidney
artificial kidney
fat-kidneyed
floating kidney
forekidney
head kidney
kidney bean
kidney belt
kidney cancer
kidney corpuscle
kidney dagger
kidney disease
kidney dish
kidneyed
kidney failure
kidney gravel
kidneyless
kidneylike
kidney machine
kidney ore
kidney potato
kidney punch
kidney-punch
kidney-shaped
kidneyshell
kidney stone
kidney vetch
kidneywood
kidneywort
monokidney
pseudokidney
pulpy kidney
sea kidney
skirts and kidneys
steak and kidney pie
xenokidney
Related terms: renal
suprarenal