▪ I. spleen, n.
(spliːn)
Forms: 4 (6–7) splen; 4–7 splene; 5–7 spleene, 6– spleen.
[ad. OF. esplen (esplien, esplene, etc.), or L. splēn, a. Gr. σπλήν, related to Skr. plīhan, L. liēn. In Romanic the word has survived in many Italian dialects, and in Romanian splină, but It. splene is of learned origin, while mod.F. spleen († spline) and Sp. esplin have been adopted from English in sense 8 c.]
1. a. Anat. An abdominal organ consisting of a ductless gland of irregular form, which in mammals is situated at the cardiac end of the stomach and serves to produce certain changes in the blood; the milt or melt.
| α a 1300 Vox & Wolf in MS. Digby 86 lf. 138 b/1 Þou hauest þat ilke ounder þe splen, Þou nestes neuere daies ten. 1390 Gower Conf. III. 100 As it is in Phisique write Of livere, of lunge, of galle, of splen, Thei alle unto the herte ben Servantz. 1577 B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. iii. (1586) 151 Swine..do woonderously labor with the abundance of the splen. 1650 B. Discolliminium 46 A..lumpe, compounded of..Satyres Splens, Polcatts Lites. |
| β c 1400 Lanfranc's Cirurg. 80 If þe lyuere eiþer þe splene ben I-greued,..þou muste rectifien hem. 1460–70 Book of Quintessence 18 Brennynge watir in þe which gold is fixid..heliþ þe splene. 1530 Palsgr. 274 The splene in a man, in a beest the melte. 1578 Lyte Dodoens 25 It is good against..the stopping of the Milte or Splene. 1601 Holland Pliny I. 343 Vnto this Cawle, is fastned the Splene on the left side of the belly just over-against the liver. 1619 [see splenic a. 1]. |
| γ ? a 1400 Morte Arth. 2061 The comlyche kynge..cowpez fulle evene..emange the schortte rybbys, That the splent and the spleene on the spere lengez! c 1623 Lodge Poor Mans Talent G iij, The spleene is a member longe, softe, and rare, like vnto a spounge, and is scituated on the lefte side. 1661 Lovell Hist. Anim. & Min. 37 The Spleen [of a cow] eaten with honey..helpeth the paine of the spleen. 1707 Floyer Physic. Pulse-Watch 116 In this Fever the Spleen is affected. 1767 Gooch Treat. Wounds I. 411 The Spleen is an oblong, flat body of a livid color; its substance is soft, and texture very loose. 1802 Med. Jrnl. VIII. 277 A propulsion of blood from the exterior parts to some of the viscera, particularly the spleen and liver. 1851 Carpenter Man. Phys. (ed. 2) 300 The structure and functions of the Spleen..have been among the most obscure subjects in Anatomy and Physiology. 1884 Day Fishes Gt. Brit. I. p. lvi, The spleen among fishes is found..as a dull reddish body of a rounded form. |
† b. Regarded as the seat of melancholy or morose feelings. Obs.
| 1390 Gower Conf. III. 99 The Splen is to Malencolie Assigned for herbergerie. c 1425 tr. Arderne's Treat. Fistula, etc. 60 Bot þe splene haþ no vertu of gendryng anyþing, siþe it is noþing bot a receptakle of malencolie. c 1430 Lydg. Min. Poems (Percy Soc.) 201 Wheer ovir many an hed hath ake, In skorn whan she lyth on the splene. 1539 Elyot Cast. Helthe (1541) 22 The splene or mylte is of yl juice, for it is the chamber of melancholy. 1605 1st Pt. Ieronimo iii. i, Not one little thought..But should raise spleens big as a cannon bullet Within your bosomes. Ibid. iii. ii, Why, this would vex The resolution of a suffering spleene. 1665 Boyle Occas. Refl. ii. xiv. (1848) 142 Those petty Chilnesses that formerly I..was apt to impute to nothing but Fumes of the Spleen, or Melancholy Vapours. |
† c. Regarded as the seat of laughter or mirth. Obs. (Freq. c 1600.)
| 1390 Gower Conf. III. 100 The galle serveth to do wreche, The Splen doth him to lawhe and pleie, Whan al unclennesse is aweie. 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. v. xli. (Bodl. MS.), Some men menyn þat þe melte is cause of laugȝhing, for by þe splene we laugȝhen. 14.. Pol., Rel., & L. Poems (1866) 37 The mynde is in the Brayne... Gladnes in the splene. 1547 Boorde Brev. Health ccvii. 71 A splene, the whiche.. doth make a manne to laughe. 1598 Bp. Hall Sat. iv. i. 74 Now laugh I loud, and breake my splene to see This pleasing pastime of my poesie. 1610 Holland Camden's Brit. (1637) 464 Such matter as will make you laugh your fill, if you have a laughing spleene. 1635 Quarles Embl. ii. iv. (1718) 77 Come burst your spleens with laughter to behold A new found vanity. 1681 S. Colvil Whigs Supplic. (1751) 91 Some for laughter burst their reins, And other some did split their spleens. |
† 2. In various phrases: † a. of or on the spleen, in jest or play. Obs.
| c 1460 Sir R. Ros La Belle Dame 327 For wordes which said ben of þ⊇ splene, In fayr langage, paynted ful plesantlye. a 1500 Nut-brown Maid in Arnolde's Chron. (1811) 203 When men wyl breke promyse, they speke the wordis on the splene. |
† b. from the spleen, from the heart. Sc. Obs.
| c 1480 Henryson Poems (S.T.S.) III. 148 This prayer fra my splene is. 1500–20 Dunbar Poems xlvi. 70 God bad eik lufe thy nychtbour fro the splene. 1571 Satir. Poems Reform. xxv. 79 When synneris repentis from þe splene. |
† c. to the spleen, to the heart. Sc. Obs.
| a 1568 A. Scott Poems (S.T.S.) xiii. 17, I thoill rycht grit distress, Bayth nycht & day, hard persit to þe splene. |
† 3. Merriment, gaiety, sport. Obs.
| 1588 Shakes. L.L.L. v. ii. 117 With such a zelous laughter so profound, That in this spleene ridiculous appeares, To checke their folly, passions solemne teares. 1596 ― Tam. Shr. Induct. i. 137 Haply my presence May well abate the ouer-merrie spleene, Which otherwise would grow into extreames. |
† 4. a. A sudden impulse; a whim or caprice.
| 1592 Shakes. Ven. & Ad. 907 A thousand spleens bear her a thousand ways. 1596 ― 1 Hen. IV, v. ii. 19 A haire⁓brain'd Hotspurre, gouern'd by a Spleene. a 1625 Fletcher Wom. Pleas'd i. ii, Not wandring after every toy comes cross ye, Nor struck with every spleen. |
† b. Caprice; changeable temper. Obs.
| 1596 Shakes. Tam. Shr. iii. ii. 10, I must forsooth be forst To giue my hand..Vnto a mad-braine rudesby, full of spleene. 1596 ― 1 Hen. IV, ii. iii. 81 Out you mad-headed Ape, a Weazell hath not such a deale of Spleene, as you are tost with. |
† 5. a. Hot or proud temper; high spirit, courage, resolute mind. Obs.
| 1592 Shakes. Rom. & Jul. iii. i. 163 All this..Could not take truce with the vnruly spleene Of Tybalt deafe to peace. 1598 B. Jonson Ev. Man in Hum. iii. i, She [= beauty] will infuse true motion in a stone,..Stuffe peasants bosoms with proud Cæsars spleene. 1600 Heywood 1st Pt. Edw. IV, Wks. 1874 I. 34 That I shrunk back, that I was neuer seene To show my manly spleen but with a whip. 1605 Play of Stucley in Simpson Sch. Shaks. (1878) I. 213 Your kind submission might have wrought What your high spleen and courage cannot do. |
† b. Impetuosity, eagerness. Obs.
| 1595 Shakes. John ii. i. 448 With swifter spleene then powder can enforce The mouth of passage shall we fling wide ope. Ibid. v. vii. 50 Oh, I am scalded with my violent motion And spleene of speede, to see your Maiesty. |
6. Violent ill-nature or ill-humour; irritable or peevish temper: a. With possessive pronouns, etc.
| 1594 Shakes. Rich. III, ii. iv. 64 O prepostorous And franticke outrage, end thy damned spleene. 1608 Chapman Dk. of Byron v. i. 136 Let others learn by him to curb their spleens, Before they be curb'd, and to cease their grudges. 1642–4 Vicars God in Mount (1844) 64 The poysonous malice and incorrigible spight and splene of the malignant partie. 1710 Steele Tatler No. 4 ¶3 His spleen is so extremely moved on this Occasion that he is going to publish a Treatise against Opera's. 1781 Wesley Wks. (1872) XIII. 462, I impute this to his violent spleen against logic. 1824 Dibdin Libr. Comp. 745 The spleen and sophistry that marked the notes of the earlier cantos of Child Harold. 1885 Rawlinson Egypt & Bab. ii. xii. 425 This time he..vented his spleen on the Jews by renewed attacks and oppressions. |
b. Without limiting word.
| 1604 Dekker King's Entertainm. H iv b, Iustice in causes, Fortitude gainst foes, Temprance in spleene. 1662 Playford Skill Mus. Pref. (1674) 5 It abateth Spleen and Hatred. 1728 Young Love of Fame iv. 16 Vex'd at a public fame, so justly won, The jealous Chremes is with spleen undone. 1752 Hume Pol. Disc. v. 81 An author, who has..more spleen, prejudice and passion than any of these qualities. 1822 Hazlitt Table-t. Ser. ii. xviii. (1869) 381 This may be very well as an ebullition of spleen or vanity. 1859 Tennyson Marr. Geraint 273 Whereat Geraint flash'd into sudden spleen. |
7. With a: a. A fit of temper; a passion. Also transf. Obs. exc. arch.
| 1589 R. Harvey Pl. Perc. (1860) 13 Fie, fie, will you vpon a spleen run vpon a Christen body with full cry and open mouth? 1590 Shakes. Mids. N. i. i. 146 Briefe as the lightning in the collied night, That (in a spleene) vnfolds both heauen and earth. 1609 R. Barnerd Faithf. Shepheard 74 Neuer speake with partiall affection against any in a spleene, euill will seldome speaks well. [1814 Cary Dante, Par. xxx. 47 As when the lightning, in a sudden spleen Unfolded, dashes from the blinding eyes The visive spirits.] |
† b. A grudge; a spite or ill-will. Obs.
| 1616 Min. Archd. Colchester (MS.) fol. 110 There is a spleene betwixt one of the Churchwardens..and this partie. 1665 Manley Grotius' Low C. Wars 825 The Duke having a spleen to the City. 1692 R. L. Estrange Josephus, Wars Jews vii. xxx. (1733) 802 Onias did not do all this..for God's sake,..but out of a Spleen he bore to the Jerusalem Jews. 1722 De Foe Col. Jack (1840) 201 The devil owing me a spleen ever since I refused being a thief. |
8. With the: † a. Amusement, delight. Obs.—1
| 1601 Shakes. Twel. N. iii. ii. 72 If you desire the spleene, and will laughe your selues into stitches, follow me. |
† b. Indignation, ill-humour. to bear (one) upon the spleen, to bear resentment against. Obs.
| 1600 W. Watson Decacordon (1602) 101 Howsoeuer vpon the spleene they sought for it at that time: he acquainted the Pope Clement with it. 1623 Bingham Xenophon 36 The ægyptians, whom you principally beare vpon the spleen. 1629 J. Maxwell tr. Herodian (1635) 38 Divers that..bore Perennius upon the spleene, for his intolerable haughty and disdainefull carriage. |
c. Excessive dejection or depression of spirits; gloominess and irritability; moroseness; melancholia. Now arch.
| 1664 Killigrew Pandora ii, Onely some fumes from his heart, Madam, makes his head addle. 'Tis call'd the spleen of late, and much in fashion. 1673 Temple Obs. on United Prov. Wks. 1720 I. 54 Strangers among them are apt to complain of the Spleen, but those of the Country seldom or never. 1711 Shaftesbury Charac. (1737) II. i. 199 At first, I look'd on you as deeply in the Spleen. 1726 Swift Gulliver iv. vii, Yet here I could discover the true seeds of the spleen, which only seizeth on the lazy, the luxurious, and the rich. 1838 Lytton Alice 66 This quiet room gives me the spleen. |
d. Without article in the same sense.
| 1690 Temple Ess., Poetry Wks. 1720 I. 248 Our Country must be confess'd to be what a great foreign Physician called it, the Region of Spleen. 1718 Lady M. W. Montagu Let. to Mrs. Thistlethwayte 25 Sept., [I have] a mind weakened by sickness, [and] a head muddled with spleen. a 1763 Shenstone Ess. Wks. 1765 II. 205 Spleen is often little else than obstructed perspiration. 1811 L. M. Hawkins C'tess & Gertr. I. 25 Professing that he knew not now in whom to place confidence, he gave himself up to spleen and seclusion. 1860 W. Collins Wom. in White ii. ii. 179 He is the victim of English spleen. |
| personif. 1712–4 Pope Rape Lock iv. 16 The gloomy Cave of Spleen. |
9. attrib. a. In sense 1, as spleen artery, spleen blood, spleen-lymph, spleen-mixture, spleen-powder, spleen-pulp, spleen side, spleen vein, etc.
| 1601 Holland Pliny II. 146 When hee hath drunke it, [let him] lie vpon the spleene side. 1611 Cotgr., Artere splenitique, the spleene arterie. Ibid. s.v. Veine, La petite gastrique..is the first branch of the spleene veine. 1834 Good's Study Med. (ed. 4) I. 367 The spleen-powder and spleen-mixture of Bengal. 1847–9 Todd's Cycl. Anat. IV. 778/2 He [Gerlach] altogether denies the existence of these granule-cells..in the spleen-pulp. Ibid. 796/2 In calves and sheep a reddish spleen-lymph is often found. 1897 Allbutt's Syst. Med. IV. 536 Caseous masses..loosely embedded in the spleen substance. |
b. In transf. senses, as spleen-fit, spleen-fog, etc.
| a 1653 G. Daniel Idyll iii. 75 All the world Trades in this magicke; though the foole be hurl'd Spleen-Shittle-Cocke. 1737 M. Green Spleen 8 If spleen-fogs rise at close of day, I clear my ev'ning with a play. 1878 Browning Poets Croisic 28 Song's remedies for spleen-fits. |
c. spleen index, rate, the proportion of the population having enlarged spleens (as determined by palpation), useful as indicating the incidence of malaria.
| 1969 Edington & Gilles Path. in Tropics ii. 13 The former [methods] determine parasite rates in random blood samples and *spleen indices... A close correlation exists between parasite and spleen rates. |
| 1903 Stephens & Christophers Pract. Study Malaria xxiii. 261 Above ten years, the *spleen rate is usually considerably in excess of the parasite rate. 1935 Discovery Jan. 11/1 In these districts today the spleen rate, indicating the incidence of malaria amongst the inhabitants, is very low. 1963 E. Pampana Textbk. Malaria Eradication iv. 72 The spleen rate underestimates the true percentage of enlarged spleens. |
10. Comb., as spleen-born, spleen-devoured, spleen-pained, spleen-piercing, spleen-shaped, spleen-sick, spleen-struck, spleen-swollen adjs.
| 1570 Levins Manip. 121 Splensicke, spleneticus. 1601 Holland Pliny II. Index s.v., For the Spleene pained, swelled, hard, obstructed, or otherwise diseased. 1609 Ev. Woman in Hum. i. i. in Bullen O. Pl. IV, Another, with a spleene-devoured face, Her eies as hollow as Anatomy. 1649 G. Daniel Trinarch. To Rdr., A fine Spleen-peirceing Witt. 1677 Miége Fr. Dict. ii, Splenetick, Spleen-sick, or troubled with the Spleen. 1763–5 Churchill Gotham i. 14 A gloom thro' which to spleen-struck minds, Religion, horror-stamp'd, a passage finds. 1775 Sheridan Rivals Pref., They are usually spleen-swoln from a vain idea of increasing their consequence. 1859 Tennyson Merlin & V. 552 You breathe but accusation vast and vague, Spleen-born, I think, and proofless. 1888 Rolleston & Jackson Anim. Life 113 A spleen-shaped body, the albuminiparous gland. |
▪ II. spleen, v.
(spliːn)
Also 7 splene.
[f. the n.]
1. † a. trans. To regard with spleen or ill-humour; to have a grudge at. Obs.
| a 1629 Hinde J. Bruen li. (1641) 168 Is it then your antipathy against goodnesse..that provokes you to swell against them, and so much to splene and spite them? 1675 J. Smith Chr. Relig. App. ii. 18 A man so vitious as his hatred to Vertue made him spleen Nicæus,..and all good men. |
† b. To fill with spleen; to make angry or ill-tempered. Obs.
| 1689 N. Lee P'cess Cleves iv. i, Such Love as mine, and injur'd as I thought, Wou'd spleen the Gaul-less Turtle, wou'd it not? a 1734 North Examen (1740) 326 The author..is manifestly spleened at the force with which they wrote and preached in the controversy. 1801 S. & Ht. Lee Canterb. T. V. 258 Stanhope, too much spleen'd for conversation, withdrew. |
c. intr. U.S. To feel spleen or deep anger.
| 1885 Congregationalist 1 Jan. (Cent.), It is fairly sickenin'; I spleen at it. 1889 R. T. Cooke Steadfast xviii. 198 [It] makes me spleen to think on't! 1902 H. L. Wilson Spenders x. 110 Well, I knew Dan'l J. purty well, and I spleened against some of his ways, but that's done fur. |
2. trans. To deprive of the spleen.
| a 1735 Arbuthnot (J.), Animals spleened grow salacious. |