kidney

English

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kidney

Wikipedia

Etymology

From Middle English kednei, kidenei, from earlier kidnēre, kidenēre (“kidney”), of obscure origin and formation. Probably a compound consisting of Middle English *kid, *quid (“belly, womb”), from Old English cwiþ, cwiþa (“belly, womb, stomach”) + Middle English nēre (“kidney”), from Old English *nēora (“kidney”), from Proto-West Germanic *neurō, from Proto-Germanic *neurô (“kidney”), from Proto-Indo-European *negʷʰr- (“kidney”). If so, then related to Scots nere, neir (“kidney”), Saterland Frisian Njuure (“kidney”), Dutch nier (“kidney”), German Niere (“kidney”), Danish nyre (“kidney”), Norwegian nyre (“kidney”), Swedish njure (“kidney”), Ancient Greek νεφρός (nephrós).

Alternate etymology traces the first element to Old English cēod, codd (“sack, scrotum”), from Proto-Germanic *keudō (“sack”) as the terms for testicle and kidney were often interchangeable in Germanic (compare Old High German nioro (“kidney", also "testicle”), Old Swedish vig-niauri (“testicle”)). More at codpiece.

Pronunciation

• (UK, Canada) IPA^(key): /ˈkɪdni/

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪdni

Noun

kidney (plural kidneys)

1. An organ in the body that filters the blood, producing urine.
   • 2013 June 1, “A better waterworks”, in The Economist‎, volume 407, number 8838, page 5 (Technology Quarterly):

     An artificial kidney these days still means a refrigerator-sized dialysis machine. Such devices mimic the way real kidneys cleanse blood and eject impurities and surplus water as urine.

2. This organ (of an animal) cooked as food.
3. (figuratively, dated) Constitution, temperament, nature, type, character, disposition. (usually used of people)
   • c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merry Wiues of Windsor”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     […] think of that, – a man of my kidney, – think of that, […]

   • 1692, Roger L’Estrange, “ (please specify the fable number.) (please specify the name of the fable.)”, in Fables, of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists: , London: R Sare, , →OCLC:

     Millions in the World of this Man's Kidney

   • 30th June, 1788, Robert Burns, letter to Mr Robert Ainslie

     Your poets, spendthrifts, and other fools of that kidney, pretend, forsooth, to crack their jokes on prudence.

   • 1920, T.S. Eliot, A Cooking Egg‎:

     I shall not want Honour in Heaven
       For I shall meet Sir Philip Sidney
     And have talk with Coriolanus
       And other heroes of that kidney.

4. (obsolete, slang) A waiter.
   • 1709, Richard Steele, The Tatler‎, volume 1:

     I once more desire my readers to consider that as I cannot keep an ingenious man to go daily to Will's under twopence each day merely for his charges, to White's under sixpence, nor to the Grecian without allowing him some plain Spanish, to be as able as others at the learned table; and that a good observer cannot speak with even Kidney at St. James's without clean linen; […]

Synonyms

• rein
• nephros
• ren

Holonyms

• urinary tract

Derived terms

Translations

See also

• renal
• suprarenal

Anagrams

• dinkey