Forms: 1 lifer, 3–4 livre, 3–5 livere, lyvre, 4 lyvour, 4–5 lyvere, 4–6 lyver, 5 levir, -yr, lyffere, lyvir, -yr, lywer, 5–6 lever, 6 Sc. liffyr, luffer, 7 livour, 1, 4– liver. [OE. lifer fem. = MDu. lēver, lēvere (Du. lever), OHG. libara, lebara, lebera, lepera (MHG. leber, lebere, G. leber), ON. lifr (Sw. lefver, Da. lever):—OTeut. *liƀrâ, ? cogn. w. Armenian leard.
Some scholars regard the Teut. word as cogn. w. the Aryan *yĕqṛt (Skr. yakrt, Gr. ὴπαρ, L. jecur), the root being supposed to be *liq- (: *lyĕq-); but the supposition involves serious difficulties.]
1. A large glandular organ in vertebrate animals, serving chiefly to secrete bile and to purify the venous blood. Also in generalized sense, the flesh of a liver or livers, e.g., used as food.
In the warm-blooded animals the liver is usually of a dark reddish-brown colour. In man it is situated below the diaphragm, and is divided by fissures into five lobes.
c. 888. K. Ælfred, Boeth., xxxv. § 6 [7]. And se Uultor sceolde forlætan þæt he ne slat þa lifre Tyties [MSS. Sticces, Ticcies] ðæs cyninges.
a. 900. Kentish Glosses, in Wr.-Wülcker, 61/33. Iecor eius, his lifere.
c. 1205. Lay., 6499. Þat deor … for-bat him þa breste ban and þa senuwen þat þa lihte and þa liuere feollen on eorðen.
c. 1290. S. Eng. Leg., I. 320/738. In þe Neþemeste bolle þat þe liuere deoth of springue, Þare comez o-manere soule.
13[?]. K. Alis., 2156. Alisaundre hutte him, certe, Thorugh livre, and longe, and heorte.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Sompn. T., 131. Have I nat of a capon but the livere.
c. 1400. Lanfranc’s Cirurg., 27. Þilke chylum spredeþ þorwe al þe lyffere by mene of veynes Capillares.
c. 1420. Liber Cocorum (1862), 41. Take lyver of porke and kerve hit smalle.
c. 1460. Towneley Myst. iii. 399. Me thynk my hert ryfis both levyr and long, To se sich stryfis wedmen emong.
1530. Lyndesay, Test. Papyngo, 1124. Ȝe thre my trypes sall haue, for ȝour trauell, With luffer and lowng.
1598. Epulario, H iv b. To make a Tart of the liuer of fishes.
1606. Shaks., Tr. & Cr., V. iii. 19. They are polluted offrings, more abhord Then spotted Liuers in the sacrifice.
1667. Milton, P. L., VI. 346. Spirits that live throughout Vital in every part, not as frail man In Entrailes, Heart or Head, Liver or Reines.
1717. Prior, Alma, I. 440. The liver … parts and strains the vital juices.
1771. Goldsm., Haunch Venison, 81. A fry’d liver and bacon.
1803. Med. Jrnl., X. 1. Abscess of the Liver.
1818. Byron, Beppo, xcii. I never Saw a man grown so yellow! How’s your liver?
1872. Huxley, Physiol., V. 117. The liver is the largest glandular organ in the body, ordinarily weighing about 50, or 60 ounces.
b. Applied to analogous glandular organs or tissues in invertebrates.
1841–71. T. R. Jones, Anim. Kingd. (ed. 4), 588. The liver is proportionally of very large size in the Mollusca we are now describing.
1861. J. R. Greene, Man. Anim. Kingd., Cœlent., 106. Within the roof of the latter [polypite] … is lodged a peculiar brownish mass, the so-called liver.
c. Palmistry. Line of the liver: the line that stretches from the wrist (near the ‘line of life’) to the base of the little finger.
1653. R. Sanders, Physiogn., xv. 50. Of the Line of the Liver, or the Hepatique. Ibid. When this line of the Liver is winding up and down, and waving, it signifies Theft, evill Conscience.
2. fig. and allusive. a. Formerly often mentioned fig. with allusion to its importance as a vital organ of the body (coupled with brain and heart); also with allusion to the ancient notion that it was the seat of love and of violent passion generally. (Now only arch.) b. A white liver is spoken of as characterizing a coward: cf. white-livered.
1390. Gower, Conf., III. 100. The livere makth him forto love.
1593. Shaks., Lucr., 47. To quench the coale which in his liuer glowes. Ibid. (1596), Merch. V., III. ii. 86. How manie cowards … Who inward searcht, haue lyuers white as milke. Ibid. (1599), Much Ado, IV. i. 233. Ibid. (1601), Twel. N., I. i. 37. When Liver, Braine, and Heart, These soueraigne thrones, are all supply’d and fill’d Her sweete perfections with one selfe king.
1602. Narcissus (1893), 703. That greives my liver most.
1606. Sir G. Goosecappe, I. iv. in Bullen, O. Pl., III. 24. Because I am all liver, and turn’d lover. Ibid., II. i. 37. Their livers were too hot,… and for temper sake they must needs have a cooling carde plaid upon them.
1611. Shaks., Cymb., V. v. 15. To you (the Liuer, Heart, and Braine of Britaine) By whom (I grant) she liues.
1612. Chapman, Widow’s Tears, V. Dram. Wks. 1873, III. 66. It will be such a cooler To my Venerean Gentleman’s hot liuer.
1623. Webster, Duchess of Malfi, II. iii. E 2 b. By him I’ll send A Letter, that shall make her brothers Galls Ore-flowe their Liuours.
1651. N. Bacon, Disc. Govt. Eng., II. xvi. (1739), 84. The Mint is the very Liver of the Nation, and was wont to be the chief Care of the Parliament.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., III. 404. When Love’s unerring Dart Transfixt his Liver, and inflam’d his Heart.
a. 1859. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., xxv. (1861), V. 304 [an. 1701]. In every market place … papers about the brazen forehead … and the white liver of Jack Howe, the French King’s buffoon, flew about.
1897. Mary Kingsley, W. Africa, 734. He was a great hunter, and his liver grew hot in him for the bush.
† c. Disposition, temperament, ‘kidney.’ rare.
1800. Spirit Public Jrnls. (1801), IV. 182. John Bull will solemnly and dully sit down to his pipe and bowl with a fellow of the same serious liver.
3. A diseased or disordered condition of the liver; liver-complaint. Also, with qualification specifying the disease, as bronze, cirrhotic, hobnailed liver.
1805. J. Leyden, in Scott’s Prose Wks., IV. Biographies, II. (1870), 179. I had a most terrible attack of the liver.
1826. Jekyll, Corr. w. Lady Stanley (1894), 165. Lord Wycombe was dying of liver and dropsy.
1839. Penny Cycl., XIV. 60/2. The ‘fatty liver’ is a frequent attendant on pulmonary phthisis.
1871. Sir T. Watson, Princ. & Pract. Physic (ed. 5), II. 670. What used to be called the ‘nutmeggy’ liver, is simply the result of congestion of its blood-vessels.
1884. A. Forbes, Chinese Gordon, iii. 148. He suffered from ague for the first time since boyhood, and later came liver.
1898. P. Manson, Trop. Diseases, xxvi. 390. Dyspeptic troubles … usually attributed to ‘liver.’
4. In old chemical terminology applied (trans. L. hepar) to certain liver-colored substances, e.g., metallic sulphides, and compounds of a metal or of sulphur with an ‘alkali.’
1694. Salmon, Bate’s Dispens., I. (1699), 436/1. Hepar Sulphuris, Liver of Sulphur.
1706. Phillips (ed. Kersey), Liver of Antimony (among Chymists), Antimony open’d by Salt-peter and Fire, so as to make it half Glas, and give it a Liver-colour.
1797. Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3), X. 104/2. Liver of Arsenic, is a combination of white arsenic with liquid fixed vegetable alkali, or by the humid way.
1799. W. Tooke, View Russian Emp., I. 283. Liver-of-sulphate springs; i. e. springs which are impregnated with sulphurate.
1800. trans. Lagrange’s Chem., I. 174. You fuse together equal parts of sulphur and alkali,… and the result will be a solid mass of a reddish brown colour,… which has a considerable resemblance to the liver of certain animals. It is for this reason that sulphurets have been called Livers.
1876. Daily Tel., 21 July, 3/5 (E. D. D.). Do you ever use black antimony, or liver of antimony, with any of the horses?—No; not that I am aware of.
5. Agric. ‘Livery’ soil.
1803. Annals Agric., XXXIX. 79. Upon these strong soils, the point … most necessary to attend to is that of avoiding all spring ploughing, which loses a friable surface, and turns up liver.
6. as adj. Liver-colored.
1868. Wood, Homes without H., xi. 203. That peculiar brown which is called ‘liver’ by bird-fanciers.
1892. Daily News, 31 May, 6/1. General Dickson’s familiar browns [horses] and the chestnuts, liver and pale.
7. attrib. and Comb., as liver abscess, ache, attack, cell, chill, colo(u)r, disease, disorder, distome, function, ill, oil, pudding, pus, trouble; liver-colo(u)red, -helping, hued, rotten adjs.; liver-brown a., of the brown color of the liver, dark brownish red; liver-complaining a., ? complaining of liver disease; liver-complaint, disease of the liver; liver-faced a., ‘mean and cowardly’ (Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., 1867); liver-fluke, a trematoid worm (Distoma hepaticum) infesting the liver; † liver-grown a., suffering from enlargement of the liver; also, adherent as an enlarged liver (in quot. fig.); liver-hearted a., cowardly; hence liver-heartedness; † liver-lap, a lobe of the liver; † liver-lask (see quot.); liver-leaf U.S., = LIVERWORT 2; liver-line, ‘line of the liver’ (1 c); liver-opal, an obsolete synonym of mexilite (Chester, Names Min., 1896); liver-ore, an early name for hepatic cinnabar (ibid.); liver-pad, a pad or plaster to be applied about the region of the liver; † liver-padding, ? = liver-pad; liver-pill, a pill intended to cure disease of the liver; liver-pyrites, hepatic pyrites (Cent. Dict., 1890); liver-rot, disease of the liver caused by the liver-fluke; † liver-sea, an imaginary sea in which the water is ‘livered’ or thick, so as to impede navigation (cf. G. lebermeer); liver-shark, the basking shark, Cetorhinus maximus (Webster, 1890); † liver-shot, -sick adjs., diseased in the liver; liver-spots, ‘a popular name for Chloasma, or macular pigmentation of the skin; because it was supposed to depend on some disorder of the liver’ (Syd. Soc. Lex.); liver-starch = GLYCOGEN (ibid.); liver-stone = HEPATITE; liver-sugar, the sugar derived from glycogen (Syd. Soc. Lex.); † liver-vein, the basilic vein; also allusively, ‘the style and manner of men in love’ (Schmidt); liver-weed, Hepatica triloba (Syd. Soc. Lex.); cf. liver-leaf; liver-wing, the right wing of a fowl, etc., which, when dressed for cooking, has the liver tucked under it; hence jocularly, the right arm.
1898. P. Manson, Trop. Diseases, xxiii. 363. I have many times seen amœbic *liver abscess cases recover completely. Ibid., ii. 64. The pain in the loins and the *liver-ache continue.
1897. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., III. 900. There had been undoubted dyspepsia or a *‘liver attack’ before the onset of the symptoms.
1794. Kirwan, Elem. Min. (ed. 2), I. 30. *Liver brown—greyish brown.
1849. D. Campbell, Inorg. Chem., 107. When protosulphide is fused with rather more than its weight of sulphur a liver brown mass is obtained.
1873. T. H. Green, Introd. Pathol. (ed. 2), 273. Atrophy of the *liver-cells.
1897. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., IV. 46. The vague condition called *‘liver-chill’ is regarded by some authors as a form of active congestion of the liver.
1686. Lond. Gaz., No. 2114/4. A … Spaniel Bitch,… mark’d all over her body … with specks of *liver-colour.
a. 1728. Woodward, Nat. Hist. Fossils, I. (1729), I. 232. A Piece of Iron-Ore, of a dark Liver Colour.
1663. Boyle, Usef. Exp. Nat. Philos., II. ii. 166. A clotted and almost *liver-coloured masse.
1810. Sporting Mag., XXXV. 261. His … liver-coloured dog Don.
1787. Generous Attachment, II. 145. A love writing, love sick, *liver complaining girl.
1809. J. Curry (title), Examination of the prejudices against mercury in *liver complaints.
1867. J. Hogg, Microsc., II. iii. 563. The excitation of the *liver disease in sheep.
1900. J. Hutchinson, Arch. Surg., XI. No. 41. 2. Foremost amongst the most definite indications of *liver disorder we have the yellow condition of the skin known as Jaundice.
1897. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., II. 1026. By comparing the figures of these *liver distomes.
179[?]. Nemnich, Polyglotten-Lex., *Liver fluke. Fasciola hepatica.
1836–9. Todd, Cycl. Anat., II. 121/1. The liver-fluke is extremely rare.
1897. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., IV. 51. Various general symptoms referable … to disturbances of gastro-intestinal and *liver functions.
1645. Milton, Tetrach., Wks. 1851, IV. 159. Unlesse it be the lowest lees of a canonicall infection *liver-grown to their sides.
1658. Evelyn, Mem. (1857), I. 344. I suffered him to be opened, when they found that he was what is vulgarly called liver-grown.
1748. Smollett, Rod. Rand. (1812), I. 321. She was only liver-grown and would in a few months be as small in the waist as ever.
1571. Golding, Calvin on Ps. xiii. 1. He complayneth not of the miserie of a fewe dayes, as the tender and *liver-harted sort [L. pusillanimes] are wont to doe.
1897. Blackmore, Dariel, liii. 468. If thou art too liver-hearted to avenge thy father’s wrongs.
1897. Olive Schreiner, Trooper P. Halket, i. 79. ‘It’s not *liver-heartedness,’ said Peter.
1611. Cotgr., Hepatique,… *Liuer-helping; comforting a whole, or curing a diseased, liuer.
1678. Lond. Gaz., No. 1327/4. White body, with some *liver-hued spots.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, VIII. Prol. 139. Sum langis for the *liffyr ill to lik of ane quart.
c. 1000. Ags. Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 238/30. Fibra, i uena, iecoris intestina, *liferlæppa.
1596. Fitz-Geffrey, Sir F. Drake (1881), 25. Her … turtle-doves,… Whose liver-laps do swell with full-vain’d loves.
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts (1658), 582. The Liver laps of a Wolf.
1597. A. M., trans. Guillemeau’s Fr. Chirurg., 48/1. The waterye Bloodye flixe is called Fluxus Hepaticus, the *Liver laske.
1851. S. Judd, Margaret, II. i. (1871), 162. *Liver leaves with cups full of snow-capped threads.
1653. R. Sanders, Physiogn., 102. The *Liver line at a distance, and not touching the Vital line.
1875. H. C. Wood, Therap. (1879), 407. When a mineral acid … is added to cod-liver oil, the well-known biliary play of colors occurs;… it shows that it is a *liver oil.
1799. G. Smith, Laboratory, I. 201. The miners find sometimes a matter in the mines they call *liver-ore.
1889. Anthony’s Photogr. Bull., II. 72. Used as a *liver pad.
14[?]. Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 580/16. Epaticum, a *lyverpaddyng.
1889. J. K. Jerome, Three Men in Boat, 2. I had just been reading a patent *liver-pill circular.
1887. Boston Jrnl. (Mass.), 31 Dec., 2/4. A *liver-pudding completed this typical Georgia repast.
1898. P. Manson, Trop. Diseases, xxiii. 361. The naked-eye appearance of *liver-pus.
1837. Youatt, Sheep, xi. 452. The river overflows…. The foundation may be laid for foot-rot … but the *liver-rot is out of the question.
1820. Coleridge, Lett. (1895), 707. What avails it … to a man in the last stage of ulcerated lungs, that his neighbour is *liver-rotten as well as consumptive?
a. 1600. Montgomerie, Misc. Poems, xlix. 11. The perillous gredy gulfe of Perse, And *levir sees that syndry shippis devoirs.
1618. Latham, 2nd Bk. Falconry (1633), 7. She [a hawk] is seldome … subiect to be *liuer shot.
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, IV. lviii. 520. The rootes … are good for such as be *liver sicke.
1597. Bp. Hall, Sat., II. vii. 45. Demon my friend once liuer-sicke of loue.
1883. G. Harley, Treat. Dis. Liver, xxv. 1061. Among a few practitioners of the old school one hears a good deal about the diagnostic value of what are called *liver-spots.
1794. Kirwan, Elem. Min. (ed. 2), I. 143. *Liverstone.
1861. New Syd. Soc. Yr.-bk. for 1860, 88. That *liver sugar is … identical with the sugar of the grape.
1897. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., II. 430. Signs of *liver-trouble precede … the intestinal disorder.
1528. Paynel, Salerne’s Regim. (1535), 105. In Aprile and May, the *lyuer veyne must be lette bloudde.
1588. Shaks., L. L. L., IV. iii. 74. This is the liuer veine, which makes flesh a deity.
1660. Culpepper, Two Treat. (1672), 10. At what time Bleeding is good … In Summer, open still the Liver-vein.
a. 1845. Hood, United Family, xviii. We all prefer the *liver-wing.
1855. Browning, De Gustibus, ii. The king Was shot at, touched in the liver-wing.
1861. Dickens, Gt. Expect., xix. Mr. Pumblechook helped me to the liver wing.
