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Kidney
Definitions
- 1 A surname from Irish.
- 1 An organ in the body that filters the blood, producing urine.
"The liver and the kidneys of animals have long been gastronomically popular for their aphrodisiac properties."
- 2 either of two bean-shaped excretory organs that filter wastes (especially urea) from the blood and excrete them and water in urine wordnet
- 3 This organ (of an animal) cooked as food.
- 4 Constitution, temperament, nature, type, character, disposition. (usually used of people) dated, figuratively
"[…] think of that, – a man of my kidney, – think of that, […]"
- 5 A waiter. obsolete, slang
"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; […]"
Etymology
From Middle English kedney, kydeney, 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 dialectal English near (“kidney”), 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 *cydde (“sack, belly, scrotum”), from Proto-Germanic *kuddijā (“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.
From a mistranslation of Irish Ó Dubháin (“descendant of Dubhán”) (directly rendered in English as Duane), a personal name from a diminutive of dubh (“black”). This was confused with dubhán (“kidney”), which in fact is a derivative of dubh (“black”).
See also for "kidney"
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