Wiktionary

spleen

See also:Spleen

English

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Etymology

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FromMiddle Englishsplene,splen,fromAnglo-NormanespleenandOld Frenchesplein,esplen,fromLatinsplēn(“milt”),fromAncient Greekσπλήν(splḗn,“the spleen”).Doubletoflien.Partially displaced the native English termmilt.

Pronunciation

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  • enPR:splēn,IPA(key):/spliːn/
  • Rhymes:-iːn
  • Audio(UK):(file)

Noun

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spleen(countableanduncountable,pluralspleens)

  2. (anatomy,immunology)Invertebrates,includinghumans,a ductless vascular gland, located in the left upper abdomen near the stomach, which destroys oldred blood cells,removes debris from thebloodstream,acts as a reservoir of blood, and produceslymphocytes.
  3. (archaic,except in theset phrase"tovent one's spleen")A badmood;spitefulness.Commparegall.
    • 1711May,[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:
      In noble minds some dregs remain, / Not yet purged off, ofspleenand sour disdain.
    • 1843,“A Voice from Trinidad”, inColonial Magazine and Commercial-maritime Journal,page465:
      Too many, however, who might take an honourable stand, fear the pettyspleenof the plantocracy; preferring the most disgusting adulation, to the blessing of him ready to perish.
    • 1929,Owen Lattimore,“The Black Gobi”, inThe Desert Road To Turkestan‎[1],Boston:Little, Brown, and Company,→OCLC,page227:
      The name I like best, however, I heard uttered by the Eldest Son of the House of Chou, who in a moment ofspleenreferred to his colleague of the House of Liang ashsiao chu-tan,the Little Pig’s Egg.
    • For more quotations using this term, seeCitations:spleen.
  4. (obsolete,rare)A sudden motion or action; afit;afreak;awhim.
  5. (obsolete)Melancholy;hypochondriacalaffections.
  6. A fit ofimmoderatelaughter ormerriment.

Synonyms

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  • milt(now chiefly of animals)
  • lien(uncommon)

Derived terms

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Descendants

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  • Tok Pisin:splin
  • →French:spleen
  • →German:Spleen
  • →Ido:spleno
  • →Polish:splin,spleen
  • →Romanian:spleen
  • →Spanish:esplín
  • →Swedish:spleen

Translations

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Verb

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spleen(third-person singular simple presentspleens,present participlespleening,simple past and past participlespleened)

  1. (obsolete,transitive)Todislike.
    • 1693,John Hacket,Scrinia Reserata:
      T. Wentworthſpleen'dthe Bishop
  2. Toannoyorirritate.
    • 1832,The Edinburgh Review: Or Critical Journal - Volume 111,page488:
      There had been a good deal of provocation, we have no doubt, before the republican simplicity, at which Mrs Trollope seems to have been so justly offended, wasspleenedinto speaking of the old woman.
    • 2013,Jonathan Safran Foer,Everything Is Illuminated:
      If you want to know why I am alwaysspleeningher, it is because I am always elsewhere with friends, and disseminating so much currency, and performing so many things that canspleena mother.
  3. (transitive,intransitive)Tocomplain;torail;tovent one's spleen.
    • 1883,Frank Abial Flower,Life of Matthew Hale Carpenter,page292:
      It was satisfactory to a majority of the bolters, but most of the democratsspleenedagainst him.
    • 1904,Philip Loring Spooner, Abram Daniel Smith,Wisconsin Reports,page xliv:
      He never counseled litigation for the sake of litigation, and no client ever complained of his loyalty, He hated sham and pretense, and openlyspleenedat the empty mouthing oracle of the street corner, the society, or the church.
    • 1964,Christine Gay,Pegasus,page39:
      O Captain, my Captain, I shan't migrain that fight —A teritable Dunga Minh art thou, A phantom of loneflight; And though I've swaggered you andspleenedyou, By the living bilge that gleaned you — You're a better man than I am, Dunga Minh!
    • 2021,John Ritter,Fatal Conceit:
      When he phoned the old man in Idaho, Herman Zaunbrecherspleened“no dothead fucking quack's gonna treat my boy like a lab rat” and ordered the surgeon to put Randall on the next flight to Boise.
  4. Toremovethe spleen, or, by extension, togore.
    • 1667,Famianus Strada,The History of the Low-Countrey Warres,page75:
      Nor did they only take Townes, kill such as made resistance, and rob houses, with the Licentiousnesse and Avarice of Souldiers, but with barbarous Inhumanity spared no age nor modesty; tyrannizing over the Rest and Monuments of the dead, which theyspleenedas much as the Living;
    • 1866,John Jones Thomas,Britannia Antiquissima,page79:
      I grant a good deal to Grecian pride of prose, and Roman fund of poesy, whenspleenedand gored to shame, defeat, and loss of prestige, on the battle-field by mere "barbaric" (? ) troops of Cimbric Hyperborean Celts.
    • 1892,George Atherton Aitken, George A. Aitken, John Arbuthnot,The Life and Works of John Arbuthnot, M.D,page328:
      "That is true," quoth Albertu, “but pray consider on the other side that animalsspleenedgrow extremely salacious, an experiment well known in dogs. "
  5. Toexciseorremove.
    • 1996,William Everson, Clif Ross,William Everson: The Light the Shadow Casts,page105:
      That will be how we lose what we have gained, The incremental rapture at the core,Spleenedof the belly's thick placental wrath, And the seed's roar.
    • 2006,Chris Eann,Lord Buddha: Book of Omens,page45:
      Picking up where I left off...broken down, knowing they'd pick through my bones like vultures for what marrow they hadn't alreadyspleenedfrom me.
    • 2019,V. A. February,Mind Your Colour:
      There is even a subtle reference to sexuality in the poem, but it is formulated in such a manner that it isspleenedof all vulgarity.

Anagrams

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French

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Etymology

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BorrowedfromEnglishspleenin the 19th century.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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spleenm(pluralspleens)

  1. badmood,melancholy
    Synonyms:bourdon,cafard,dépression,ennui,hypocondrie,langueur,neurasthénie
    J’ai lespleen.
    I'm in a bad mood

Further reading

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Polish

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Etymology

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Unadapted borrowingfromEnglishspleen.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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spleenminan

  1. (clinicalpsychology,medicine)Alternative spelling ofsplin

Declension

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Declension ofspleen
singular plural
nominative spleen spleeny
genitive spleenu spleenów
dative spleenowi spleenom
accusative spleen spleeny
instrumental spleenem spleenami
locative spleenie spleenach
vocative spleenie spleeny

Further reading

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  • spleeninWielki słownik języka polskiego,Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
  • spleenin Polish dictionaries at PWN

Romanian

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Etymology

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Unadapted borrowingfromEnglishspleen.Doubletoflienandsplină.

Noun

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spleenn(uncountable)

  1. spleen(melancholy)

Declension

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declension of spleen (singular only)
singular
ngender indefinite articulation definite articulation
nominative/accusative (un)spleen spleenul
genitive/dative (unui)spleen spleenului
vocative spleenule

Swedish

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Etymology

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BorrowedfromEnglishspleen.Attested since 1745.

Noun

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spleenc

  1. spleen(melancholy, ennui)

Declension

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Declension ofspleen
nominative genitive
singular indefinite spleen spleens
definite spleenen spleenens
plural indefinite — —
definite — —

See also

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References

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