spleen
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: enpr: splēn
ipa: /spliːn/
rhymes: -iːn
Forms: form: spleens
Etymology: From Middle English splene, splen, from Anglo-Norman espleen and Old French esplein, esplen, from Latin splēn (“milt”), from Ancient Greek σπλήν (splḗn, “the spleen”). Doublet of lien. Partially displaced the native English term milt.
Senses: topics: anatomy
immunology
medicine
sciences
glosses: In vertebrates, including humans, a ductless vascular gland, located in the left upper abdomen near the stomach, which destroys old red blood cells, removes debris from the bloodstream, acts as a reservoir of blood, and produces lymphocytes.
examples: text: In noble minds some dregs remain, / Not yet purged off, of spleen and sour disdain.
ref: 1711 May, [Alexander Pope], An Essay on Criticism, London: […] W[illiam] Lewis […]; and sold by W[illiam] Taylor […], T[homas] Osborn[e] […], and J[ohn] Graves […], →OCLC:
text: Too many, however, who might take an honourable stand, fear the petty spleen of the plantocracy; preferring the most disgusting adulation, to the blessing of him ready to perish.
ref: 1843, “A Voice from Trinidad”, in Colonial Magazine and Commercial-maritime Journal, page 465:
text: The name I like best, however, I heard uttered by the Eldest Son of the House of Chou, who in a moment of spleen referred to his colleague of the House of Liang as hsiao chu-tan, the Little Pig’s Egg.
ref: 1929, Owen Lattimore, “The Black Gobi”, in The Desert Road To Turkestan, Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, →OCLC, page 227:
text: Sullen now, with stultified spleen, Mrs Dibble grappled her crutches and levered herself upright after an ungainly struggle.
ref: 1950, Norman Lindsay, Dust or Polish?, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 150:
qualifier: except in the set phrase "to vent one's spleen"
glosses: A bad mood; spitefulness. Compare gall.
examples: text: A thousand spleens bear her a thousand ways.
Brief as the lightning in the collied night; That, in a spleen, unfolds both heaven and Earth
ref: 1593, [William Shakespeare], Venus and Adonis, London: […] Richard Field, […], →OCLC:
glosses: A sudden motion or action; a fit; a freak; a whim.
examples: text: Bodies changed to various forms by spleen.
ref: 1712 May, [Alexander Pope], “The Rape of the Locke. An Heroi-comical Poem.”, in Miscellaneous Poems and Translations. […], London: […] Bernard Lintott […], →OCLC, canto:
text: There is a luxury in self-dispraise: / And inward self-disparagement affords / To meditative spleen a grateful feast.
ref: 1814, William Wordsworth, The Excursion:
glosses: Melancholy; hypochondriacal affections.
examples: text: By virtue, thou enforcest laughter ; thy silly thought, my spleen
ref: c. 1601–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Twelfe Night, or What You Will”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]:
glosses: A fit of immoderate laughter or merriment.
Synonyms: word: lien
english: now chiefly of animals
translation: now chiefly of animals
word: milt
Derived terms: accessory spleen
sago spleen
spleenful
spleenless
spleenlike
spleen stone
spleenwort
spleeny
splenectomy
splenetic
splenic
spleno-
splenosis
sugar-coated spleen
vent one's spleen
wandering spleen
waxy spleen
Related terms: splenomegaly