Word of the Day

splenetic \spli-NET-ik\,
adjective:
1. irritable; peevish; spiteful.
2. of the spleen; splenic.
3. Obsolete. affected with, characterized by, or tending to produce melancholy.
noun:
1. a splenetic person.

You see, she stoutly maintained the belief that beneath this splenetic and ogreish exterior there beat a heart of gold, though this I imagine was something she had to do, the idea that her father was splenetic and ogreish all the way through being just too grim to contemplate.
-- Patrick McGrath, "The Grotesque," 1989

It is true, when the wind is easterly, or the gout gives him a gentle twinge, or he hears of any new successes of the French, he will become a little splenetic; and heaven help the man...that crosses his humor.
-- Washington Irving, "Samalagundi," 1807

Sharing its root with spleen, splenetic entered English at the turn of the fourteenth century, and comes from the Proto-Indo-European splegh-.


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