before vowels splanchn-, word-forming element meaning "viscera," from Greek splankhnon, usually in plural, splankhna "the innards, entrails" (including heart, lungs, liver, kidneys); related to splen (see spleen).
Entries linking to splanchno-
spleen n.
c. 1300, non-glandular organ of the abdomen, from Old French esplen, from Latin splen, from Greek splen "the milt, spleen," from PIE *spelgh- "spleen, milt" (source also of Sanskrit plihan-, Avestan sperezan, Armenian p'aicaln, Latin lien, Old Church Slavonic slezena, Lithuanian blužnis, Old Prussian blusne, Old Irish selg "spleen").
Regarded in old medicine as the seat of morose feelings and bad temper. Hence figurative sense of "violent ill-temper" (1580s, implied in spleenful); and thence spleenless "free from anger, ill-humor, malice, or spite" (1610s).
splanchnic adj.
1690s, "pertaining to the viscera," from medical Latin splanchnicus, from Greek splankhnon (see splanchno-) + -ic.