Milte
/ˈmɪl.tə/noun
A Middle English and obsolete English form of “milt,” meaning the spleen or the reproductive fluid of a male fish.
Did you know?Ancient humoral medicine associated the spleen with black bile and melancholy, helping make it a symbol of sadness long before modern anatomy understood its function.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*mel-
“Soft; a reconstructed root associated with softness or yielding matter”
Proto-Germanic
PGmc
*meltijō
“The spleen”
Old English
Old English
milte
“The spleen”
Middle English
Middle English
milte
“The spleen; an anatomical organ associated in medieval medicine with bodily humors”
15th–16th Century
English
milt
“The spleen, and increasingly the seminal fluid of male fish”
Modern English
English
milt
“The spleen of an animal, or the sperm-containing reproductive fluid of a male fish”