splenetic

• splenetick (obsolete)

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.

• (US) IPA^(key): /spləˈnɛtɪk/

  Rhymes: -ɛtɪk

splenetic (comparative more splenetic, superlative most splenetic)

1. Bad-tempered, irritable, peevish, spiteful, habitually angry.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:angry, Thesaurus:irritable

   • 1662, [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: 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. […], volumes (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, volumes (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.

• splenetically (adv)
• splenetical

• lienal
• spleenful
• spleeny
• splenic
• splenitive

splenetic (plural splenetics)

1. (archaic) A person affected with spleen.