Proto-Slavic name for the spleen: problems of etymology

The article focuses on the problems connected with the reconstruction of the Proto-
Slavic word for spleen, numerous variants of which have been proposed by other scholars
(such as *selzena, *solzena, *sьlezena, *selzenь, etc.) We look at the reasons why
a wide variety of secondary forms has appeared. As our research has shown, the only
proven Proto-Slavic form is *selzena. The analysis of relations between the words for
“spleen” and “drake” in other languages helps determine which of them was primary in
terms of etymology, which (among other things) is important for the Indo-European
etymology of the word *selzena. We draw typological parallels with cases when the
name of the bird was transferred to the spleen, whereby the spleen was designated by its
colour, or vice versa — when the colour got its name from the spleen. The provided arguments
seem to indicate that the drake was given such name because of the lilac colour
of its body reminding the colour of the spleen. We also put forward a new explanation of
how -p- was lost in the Proto-Slavic word in question (*selzena instead of expected
*spelzena) — the folk-etymological influence of *selĝ- ‘to release, send’ or *sel- ‘to
speed up, jump’.