spleen

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a dark-red organ near the stomach that filters blood and supports the immune system

   The scan showed that the patient's spleen was slightly enlarged.

2. 2
   noun

   resentful anger, ill temper, or spite, especially in literary use

   He vented his spleen on everyone who questioned the decision.

From Middle English splene, via Old French from Latin splen and Ancient Greek splen ("spleen"). Ancient medicine associated the organ with ill temper, which produced the figurative sense "resentful anger." The word partly displaced native English milt.

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