Other forms: spleens
The spleen is a dark red organ on the left of the body that filters blood. A ruptured spleen, remove the spleen, pain in the spleen.
It clears worn-out red cells and helps fight certain infections, and a person can live without one but needs vaccinations and sometimes lifelong antibiotics. It bleeds heavily when injured. To vent your spleen means to express anger, from the old theory of the humours.
1nounspleenAn organ that filters blood, on the left of the body.
“After the car crash, surgeons had to remove his damaged spleen.”
spleen is an organ.
Greek splen names the organ. Medieval medicine held it to be the seat of anger and melancholy.
Ancient Greek
σπλήν — the spleen
Latin
splēn — milt
Old French
esplein
Anglo-Norman
espleen
Middle English
splene
English, today
spleen
From Middle English splene, splen, from Anglo-Norman espleen and Old French esplein, esplen, from Latin splēn (“milt”), from Ancient Greek σπλήν (“the spleen”). a doublet of lien. Partially displaced the native English term milt.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA