splenetic
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /spləˈnɛtɪk/
rhymes: -ɛtɪk
Forms: form: more splenetic
form: most splenetic
form: splenetick
Etymology: The adjective form of spleen, borrowed from Late Latin spleneticus, from Latin splen. Anger was traditionally believed to originate from the fluids of the spleen.
Senses: examples: text: A sect, whose chief devotion lies / In odd perverse antipathies; / […] / More peevish, cross, and splenetick, / Than dog distract, or monkey sick.
ref: 1662 (indicated as 1663), [Samuel Butler], “[The First Part of Hudibras]”, in Hudibras. The First and Second Parts. […], London: […] John Martyn and Henry Herringman, […], published 1678; republished in A[lfred] R[ayney] Waller, editor, Hudibras: Written in the Time of the Late Wars, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: University Press, 1905, →OCLC:
text: Horace seems to have purg'd himself from those Splenetick Reflections in those Odes and Epodes, before he undertook the Noble Work of Satires; which were properly so call'd.
ref: 1692, John Dryden, “A Discourse Concerning the Original and Progress of Satire,”, in The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis:
text: […] here were no Gibers, Cenſurers, Backbiters, Pick-pockets, Highwaymen, Houſebreakers, Attorneys, Bawds, Buffoons, Gameſters, Politicians, Wits, ſplenetick tedious Talkers, Controvertiſts, Raviſhers, Murderers, Robbers, Virtuoſo's; […]
ref: 1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], “The Author’s Oeconomy and Happy Life among the Houyhnhnms. […]”, in Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume II, London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], →OCLC, part IV (A Voyage to the Houyhnhnms), page 301:
text: Laura was at a loss to account for her cousin’s sulky behaviour, and ignorant in what she had offended him; however, she was not angry in her turn at Pen’s splenetic mood, for she was the most good-natured and forgiving of women, and besides, an exhibition of jealousy on a man’s part is not always disagreeable to a lady.
ref: 1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 27, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC:
text: In fact, Gwendolen, not intending it, but intending the contrary, had offended her hostess, who, though not a splenetic or vindictive woman, had her susceptibilities.
ref: 1876, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], Daniel Deronda, volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC:
text: In 1979 he published Contre le cinéma situationniste, néo-nazi (Against Neo-Nazi Situationist Cinema), a pamphlet on Hurlements and Debord's later films so splenetic that Isou was unable to bring himself to mention Debord by name; […]
ref: 1989, Greil Marcus, “The Attack on Charlie Chaplin”, in Lipstick Traces, Faber & Faber, published 2009:
synonyms: word: angry
word: annoyed
word: apoplectic
word: bad-tempered
word: berserk
word: big mad
word: blood-boiling
word: boiling mad
word: cheesed off
word: choleric
word: cross
word: enraged
word: fit to be tied
word: fuming
word: furibund
word: furious
word: fury
word: glimflashy
word: hopping mad
word: ill-natured
word: incensed
word: infuriated
word: irate
word: ireful
word: ired
word: irritated
word: little mad
word: livid
word: mad
word: mad as a bear with a sore head
word: pathetic
word: pissed off
word: p'd off
word: pissed
word: pissy
word: raging
word: ready to be tied
word: screwfaced
word: seething
word: spitting chips
word: splenetic
word: sore
word: steaming
word: up on one's ear
word: vexed
word: waxy
word: wode
word: wrathful
word: wroth
word: zowerswopped
word: atrabilious
word: liverish
word: bad-tempered
word: fractious
word: bilious
word: bitchy
word: brainish
word: cantankerous
word: carnaptious
word: crabbit
word: crabby
word: cranky
word: crotchety
word: dyspeptic
word: edgy
word: fantoddish
word: fiery
word: fretful
word: grumpy
word: grotchy
word: grouchy
word: hissy
word: hot-livered
word: hot-tempered
word: hotheaded
word: huffy
word: humpy
word: ill-natured
word: ill-tempered
word: irascible
word: irritable
word: out of sorts
word: ornery (chiefly US)}
word: peevish
word: pettish
word: petulant
word: prickly
word: quick-tempered
word: querulous
word: raspy
word: ratty
word: short-tempered
word: snappish
word: snappy
word: snippety
word: snippish
word: snippy
word: snitchy
word: splenetic
word: stressy
word: surly
word: testy
word: tetchy
word: tetty
word: thin-skinned
word: thorny
word: touchy
word: twitchy
word: umbrageous
word: waspish
glosses: Bad-tempered, irritable, peevish, spiteful, habitually angry.
examples: text: I have already described the general protuberance of the abdomen among the children throughout the Messaria and the Carpas districts, all of whom are more or less affected by splenetic diseases.
ref: 1879, Sir Samuel White Baker, Cyprus, as I Saw it in 1879
topics: biology
natural-sciences
glosses: Related to the spleen.
Derived terms: word: splenetically
word: splenetical
Related terms: lienal
spleenful
spleeny
splenic
splenitive