Splenetic?

Leave it to the Old Gray Lady to ruin my moment of silence for George Carlin by using a word in their headline on his death that I and anyone else who wasn’t absolutely guessing had to look up: “splenetic.” Really, New York Times? “Splenetic?” I don’t believe I’m exaggerating when I say that I have never heard this word before, whether used to describe George Carlin or anyone or anything else. And while, yes, I could guess that it had something to do with the spleen, perhaps the venting thereof, I still did not appreciate having to move off my thoughts of Carlin’s career and importance, which seemed to me absolutely undiminished in most recent years, in order to find that yes, “splenetic” originally referred to a person with a diseased spleen (at a time when I believe the spleen referred to anything betwixt neck and naughty bits) and now should be taken to mean bad-tempered or spiteful. Further, my dictionary feels that “splenetic” is actually an archaic form of “splenic,” which would no doubt make Melvil Dewey happy but shows the level of reach involved here.

Not only is it a bad word, because it takes the reader out of the article and diving into dictionaries, but it’s the wrong word. I ran hot and cold on Carlin — there were some years where it just seemed he wasn’t right for the time, but in our current climate he seemed a sharper observer than ever. But it never struck me that there was anything bad-tempered or spiteful about what he said — if anything he seemed to take joy in pointing out fundamental hypocrisy, the absurdities that we accept every day. Was he angry about them? Sure. But he never devolved to spite. Spite isn’t funny. George Carlin was very, very funny.