Where did the spleen get such a beautiful name?
Etymologist Brian Youmans (pathetic@panix.com) came up with the following etymology. According to Brian: “[the word ‘spleen’] has very ancient roots, going back to the Middle English, ‘splen’, the Old French ‘esplen’, the Latin ‘splen’, the Greek ‘splen’ (long e there), and the Indo-European ‘sphelgh’, from which the Sanscrit ‘plihan’ (long i) and Old Slavic ‘slezena’.
