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splenetic

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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The adjective form of spleen, borrowed from Late Latin spleneticus, from Latin splen. Anger was traditionally believed to originate from the fluids of the spleen.

Pronunciation

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Adjective

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splenetic (comparative more splenetic, superlative most splenetic)

  1. Bad-tempered, irritable, peevish, spiteful, habitually angry.
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:angry, Thesaurus:irritable
    • 1662 (indicated as 1663), [Samuel Butler], “[The First Part of Hudibras]”, in Hudibras. The First and Second Parts. […], London: […] John Martyn and Henry Herringman, […], published 1678; republished in A[lfred] R[ayney] Waller, editor, Hudibras: Written in the Time of the Late Wars, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: University Press, 1905, →OCLC:
      A sect, whose chief devotion lies / In odd perverse antipathies; / […] / More peevish, cross, and splenetick, / Than dog distract, or monkey sick.
    • 1692, John Dryden, “A Discourse Concerning the Original and Progress of Satire,”, in The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis:
      Horace seems to have purg'd himself from those Splenetick Reflections in those Odes and Epodes, before he undertook the Noble Work of Satires; which were properly so call'd.
    • 1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], “The Author’s Oeconomy and Happy Life among the Houyhnhnms. […]”, in Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume II, London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], →OCLC, part IV (A Voyage to the Houyhnhnms), page 301:
      […] here were no Gibers, Cenſurers, Backbiters, Pick-pockets, Highwaymen, Houſebreakers, Attorneys, Bawds, Buffoons, Gameſters, Politicians, Wits, ſplenetick tedious Talkers, Controvertiſts, Raviſhers, Murderers, Robbers, Virtuoſo's; […]
    • 1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 27, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC:
      Laura was at a loss to account for her cousin’s sulky behaviour, and ignorant in what she had offended him; however, she was not angry in her turn at Pen’s splenetic mood, for she was the most good-natured and forgiving of women, and besides, an exhibition of jealousy on a man’s part is not always disagreeable to a lady.
    • 1876, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], Daniel Deronda, volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), Edinburgh, London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC:
      In fact, Gwendolen, not intending it, but intending the contrary, had offended her hostess, who, though not a splenetic or vindictive woman, had her susceptibilities.
    • 1989, Greil Marcus, “The Attack on Charlie Chaplin”, in Lipstick Traces, Faber & Faber, published 2009:
      In 1979 he published Contre le cinéma situationniste, néo-nazi (Against Neo-Nazi Situationist Cinema), a pamphlet on Hurlements and Debord's later films so splenetic that Isou was unable to bring himself to mention Debord by name; […]
  2. (biology) Related to the spleen.
    • 1879, Sir Samuel White Baker, Cyprus, as I Saw it in 1879
      I have already described the general protuberance of the abdomen among the children throughout the Messaria and the Carpas districts, all of whom are more or less affected by splenetic diseases.

Derived terms

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Translations

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Noun

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splenetic (plural splenetics)

  1. (archaic) A person affected with spleen.
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