Ren
/rɛn/noun
A kidney, especially in anatomical or archaic usage.
Did you know?Ren is a direct English borrowing from Latin ren, the source of renal; its plural renes still appears in anatomical terminology.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*h₁rēn-
“Kidney”
Proto-Italic
PIE/Italic
*rēn-
“Kidney”
Classical Latin
Latin
rēn, renēs
“Kidney; kidneys”
17th Century
English
ren
“A kidney, used chiefly in medical or anatomical contexts”
Modern English
English
ren
“An anatomical or archaic term for a kidney”