spleen

Meaning

Noun

1. (countable, uncountable) 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.
2. (archaic, countable, uncountable) A bad mood; spitefulness. Compare gall.
3. (countable, obsolete, rare, uncountable) A sudden motion or action; a fit; a freak; a whim.
4. (countable, obsolete, uncountable) Melancholy; hypochondriacal affections.
5. (countable, uncountable) A fit of immoderate laughter or merriment.

Verb

1. (obsolete, transitive) To dislike.
2. To annoy or irritate.
3. (ambitransitive) To complain; to rail; to vent one's spleen.
4. To remove the spleen, or, by extension, to gore.
5. To excise or remove.

Synonyms

milt

anger

💢

lien

melancholy

melancholia

bile

spite

choler

irascibility

temper

dander

gall

pancreas

quick temper

short temper

malevolence

maliciousness

malignance

meanness

miff

nastiness

rage

😡

spitefulness

stinger

tantrum

unkindness

wrath

mulligrubs

one’s side

depression

enlarged spleen

wrathiness

lieno

spleno

splenic organ

adze

the blues

aggravation

angriness

bitchiness

blues

cut

deviltry

discontent

dudgeon

fretfulness

fume

gall bladder

grudge

huff

Translations

rate

Milz

bazo

milza

baço

milt

lien

melsa

σπλήνα

طحال

dalak

splen

spleen

esplim

Pronounced as (IPA)

/spliːn/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English: splene

In summary

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.