kidney
/ˈkɪdni/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: 4.03 in modern English
14
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
Constitution, temperament, nature, type, character, disposition. (usually used of people)
Dated
Example Sentences
- "The liver and the kidneys of animals have long been gastronomically popular for their aphrodisiac properties."
- "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."
- "[…] think of that, – a man of my kidney, – think of that, […]"
- "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."
- "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."
Etymology
From Middle English kideney, kydeney, alteration of earlier kidenere (“kidney”) after ey (“egg”), of obscure origin and formation. Probably a compound consisting of Middle English *kidde (“sack”) + Middle English nere (“kidney”). The first element would be from Old English *cydde (“sack, 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”)); the second is from Old English *nēora or Middle Low German nêre (“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 neir (“kidney”), Saterland Frisian Njuure (“kidney”), West Frisian nier (“kidney”), Dutch nier (“kidney”), German Niere (“kidney”), Danish nyre (“kidney”), Norwegian nyre (“kidney”), Swedish njure (“kidney”), Ancient Greek νεφρός (nephrós, “kidney”). An alternate etymology traces the first element to Old English cwiþ, cwiþa (“belly, womb, stomach”), though the loss of /w/ in a stressed syllable is difficult to explain.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Usage
Subject
Wiktionary places this term in Medicine.