2960: Organ Meanings

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Organ Meanings

Title text: IMO the thymus is one of the coolest organs and we should really use it in metaphors more.

Explanation

This explanation may be incomplete or incorrect: We need a replacement phrase for a “silver tongue” - linguists, please help. If you can address this issue, please edit the page! Thanks.

This is a graph by Randall ranking how well he understands the function of certain human organs, compared to how much he understands metaphors using them.

A number of organs (and other body parts) are used in common vernacular for metaphorical meaning. The English language is full of sayings like "she had a lot of heart", "go with your gut", and "he hasn't got the stomach for it". One might expect understanding an organ's role and its use in metaphor to be strongly correlated, since the metaphors generally work by drawing a parallel to biological function. However, since our understanding of biological functions has evolved dramatically over time, and metaphorical language does not always keep up, the correspondence is often much looser. To complicate matters, many such anatomical metaphors vary from culture to culture, even though the biological functions remain largely consistent.^{[citation needed]}

The pineal gland, located in the center of the brain, was described as the "Seat of the Soul" by the mind-body dualist René Descartes in the 17th century. If this was true, the metaphors that might be derived from it would be quite clear. It was only in the mid-20th century that its real neuroendocrine (hormone-producing) biological role was grasped. Thus, the real meaning of the metaphor "the pineal gland of something" is uncertain, as is its actual function for the layman. It was also described as a "third eye", as its regulation of the circadian rhythm used to be linked to light perception in the organ, and still is in Tuataras. It is also jokingly stated as still the location of the soul within discordianism.

The thymus, highlighted in the title text, plays an important role in the immune system. It is not commonly used in metaphors,^{[citation needed]} but is perhaps ripe for use in ones describing such things as resilience, indomitability, and adaptability to changing circumstance, were more people to know what it was.

Organ	Biological understanding	Metaphor understanding	Biological function	Metaphor meaning(s)	Comments
Appendix	3%	85%	Maintaining gut flora, introducing pathogens to the immune system	Uselessness; extraneousness	The appendix was long assumed to be vestigial with no useful function, and thus could be removed with minimal consequences. Modern research has shown that it retains utility as reservoir for useful micro-organisms. It is also unclear whether metaphorical usages have in mind the body part, or the alternative usage referring to a part of a publication.
Nerves	40%	90%	Sensing stimuli, and controlling muscles and organs	Courage; lack of courage; unsettledness; arrogance; (emotional) feeling	The basic workings of the nervous system are well-understood, but combining many neurons creates an emergent system that is practically impossible to predict.
Spine	50%	80%	Holding other bones up, protecting the spinal cord	Courage; resoluteness; structural integrity; centrality
Heart	80%	90%	Circulation of blood	Emotion; feeling; sympathy; love; courage; resilience; core; essence; the vulnerable self	The function of the heart is (relatively) easy to understand, since it is, in essence, a circulatory pump. However, it has long been culturally associated with emotion and resolve.
Bones	75%	80%	Holding the body up, protection of underlying organs	Basic/underlying structure; something hidden; core; essence; an issue of debate	Bone marrow is the actual source of blood, associated with sanguine moods, previously believed to be created in the liver
Stomach	70%	65%	Repository for cake and other, less important, foods	Ability to tolerate unpleasant circumstances; motivation	The stomach's primary function is as part of the digestive system, but it's often one of the first organs impacted by illness or disgust, which has made a strong stomach a metaphor for constitution and resolve.
Liver	10%	48%	Processing alcohol and other important metabolic functions like glycemia regulation, toxin processing, decomposition/production of amino acids and lipids, etc.	Courage or lack thereof (e.g., lily-livered)	Actual source of yellow bile, stored in the gall bladder, associated with choleric moods but previously believed to be the source of blood
Lungs	60%	52%	Oxygenation of blood, exhalation of carbon dioxide	Loudness (e.g., of singing); purification; aerobic stamina	Source of phlegm, associated with phlegmatic moods
Spleen	22%	34%	Storing extra blood, filtering blood for damaged cells and pathogens	Anger; viciousness, "venting one's spleen"	Source of black bile, associated with melancholy
Thymus	10%	13%	Training immune cells (T-Cells)
Kidneys	47%	19%	Filtering blood for metabolic wastes and excess minerals
Pineal gland	2%	2%	Produces melatonin		Philosophers from Herophilus to Descartes speculated that the pineal gland might be the seat of the soul, or regulate the flow of vital spirits, or otherwise serve an important metaphysical function.
Tongue	70%	5%	Taste, chewing, speaking	Language; unidentified speakers (particularly in relation to gossip/secrets); something long and extended

As Randall does not provide any examples, only his general ratings, it is not entirely clear whether he has restricted himself to metaphors drawing upon the nature of organs (e.g. "heart of the city" or "bone dry") and/or metaphorically describing these organs in terms of another idea ("a heart of gold" or "his bones turned to jelly"). As well as metaphor, the assessment might also involve all closely related (or overlapping) rhetorical devices such as simile ("his heart fluttered like a butterfly"), metonymy ("my mother tongue"), other references with an intent more figurative than literal ("he was a bundle of nerves"), or misattributed bodily functions ("I feel it in my bones"). As such, any contributed examples given here could be disputed in all except the broadest of terms.

Transcript

[A graph is shown with X and Y-axis without arrow or ticks. To the left of the Y-axis and below the X-axis there are labels with an arrow pointing up from the top of the Y-axis label and an arrow pointing right above the X-axis label, just beneath the x-axis.]

Y-axis: How well I understand what it means when used in metaphors

X-axis: How well I understand its actual biological function

[On the graph is a scatter plot with 13 labels. Each label is written inside a line that goes just around the words. There are most in the top right corner, but they are spread all over the graph. Here in approximate reading order from top left with indicating of where on the graph the words are located:]

[Top left:]

Appendix

[Top middle:]

Nerves

Spine

[Top right:]

Heart

Bones

Stomach

[Center left:]

Liver

Spleen

[Center right:]

Lungs

[Bottom left:]

Thymus

Pineal gland

[Bottom middle:]

Kidneys

[Bottom right:]

Tongue

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Discussion

how is thymus formed 172.70.85.102 07:00, 18 July 2024 (UTC)

It grows from seed.172.69.194.97 12:23, 18 July 2024 (UTC)

You think Randall might have made this one as a ploy to have explain xkcd educate him on the organs and metaphors mentioned? 162.158.146.33 07:59, 18 July 2024 (UTC)

Why is 'Liver' so high up on the metaphor scale? The only one I can think of is 'lily-livered', which doesn't appear to make much sense at all. On the other hand, I'd have 'Spleen' nearer the top, and 'Tongue' fairly high up as well. 172.70.162.185 08:06, 18 July 2024 (UTC)

Agreed; personally I’d have liver and tongue switch places, and I’d guess the one who added silver-tongued and biting one’s tongue would probably agree also. But that might be because I understand the biological function of a liver better than the average person does. 172.70.210.5 08:21, 18 July 2024 (UTC)

Are those really metaphors, though? 162.158.40.152 09:24, 18 July 2024 (UTC)

They aren't, or at least not metaphors to the tongue. Just done an edit, before having read this, to remove the visibility of "silver tongue" (a tongue that is metaphorically as silver... or maybe even quicksilver) and a "bitten tongue" (the tongue as if restrained by biting). Though there are other forms, the metaphor to biological function must be of the general "it is the tongue of the <something else>" type, maybe such as a tongue of lava or the tongue of an oil-can (one being an extending appendage, the other additionally being a contact depositor of liquid - though not always consistent in application).

Something can more easily be understood as the metaphorical heart/nerves/spine/etc of something, and we also have a good understanding of what the originals do. A sewage treatment plant can be considered the kidneys of a town (arguably more understood than a liver of one, for example, so I'd have personally switched the two), but it gets more complex with some of them. In the case of the appendix, we pretty much only know (in lay-use) that it's a spare fleshy bit that might or might not have any use, so the metaphorical 'equivalent biological function' of a "town's 'appendix'" is probably more understood than a body's actual appendix, for most people, the opposite of the situation with metaphorical/actual tongues. 172.70.91.64 10:06, 18 July 2024 (UTC)

Your understanding of metaphors is... unique. A "silver tongue" certainly is a tongue-based metaphor; we're referring to someone's manner of speech as their "tongue". -- Collapsinghrung (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

From my perspective, that's a tongue-targetting metaphor. "He has a tongue of silver" (in this case "tongue" is a metonym of "manner of talking", not a metaphor). Your understanding of what the tongue refers to is different from metaphor/simile, etc, as it is the thing (the talking) that is refered to. It's the silverness that's an metaphorical element. Or, like "To bite one's tongue", having become an established idiom. 172.70.86.145 16:46, 18 July 2024 (UTC)

The one I think of is "What am I chopped Liver". Though according to google that is usually a Jewish metaphor (which I am) 162.158.158.103 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

Liver has medieval English metaphors for bravery too, but afaik usually in the context of weak-liver = cowardly; e.g. lily-livered. 172.69.130.19 14:25, 18 July 2024 (UTC)

Euch ist wohl ne Laus über die Leber gelaufen! (German proverb, "=someone angered you?!") 172.71.160.115 07:12, 19 July 2024 (UTC)

I'm not convinced that 'Metaphor meaning' is going to work as a column in the table - several of these have multiple metaphors associated, often with varied and little-related meanings.172.70.160.249 12:20, 18 July 2024 (UTC)

I just added the line about anatomical metaphors varying from culture to culture. Would people like to include any examples of culturally variable metaphors? I think it was Jonathan Safran Foer's "Everything Is Illuminated" where an Eastern European character kept shouting out "spleen". 172.70.46.172 12:58, 18 July 2024 (UTC)

One example off the top of my head - and might need a proper reference to add - is the common use of Kidneys in metaphor. Afaik, the most common-slang in NA for that is "ow my kidneys" as in "I laughed so hard, my kidneys hurt now." Meanwhile, in many East Asian cultures, references to the 'kidneys' is most commonly used as an euphemism for sexual performance due to the connection to traditional medicine, where having sex is seen as 'exerting/damaging the kidneys.' E.g., feeding someone food 'good for the kidneys,' references to 'oh, your kidneys have been overexerted lately,' 'are your kidneys okay,' etc. 172.69.214.38 14:05, 18 July 2024 (UTC)

Kidneys are also often referred to, typically facetiously, as a high value object one can sell in a pinch. 172.69.140.184 08:44, 19 July 2024 (UTC)

I think tongue is placed strangely low on the metaphor axis. Usage of "tongue" to mean language, conversation, or other speech (i.e. "mother tongue," "silver-tongued," "speaking in tongues") is well-established. Secondly, I also feel kidneys should be higher with the added metaphorical definition of value, as in "you'd have to sell a kidney." 172.69.140.184 08:44, 19 July 2024 (UTC)

Tongue (as per language) is a metonym, not a metaphor. And other examples I'm seeing are verging upon similes (also different from metaphors). People seem to be confused about this, but possibly also Randall (hard to tell, as he doesn't really give examples, just his graphic conclusions). 172.70.162.185 09:48, 19 July 2024 (UTC)

Added a poscript paragraph to try to cover the scope of these contentions between y'all. I (hurridly) provided examples for each linguistic form, but I might not have gone with the best ones (for example, I was going to add such as "a brain like a computer", at the appropriate point, but then realised that "brain" wasn't even featured in the comic so obviously better rhetorical examples could be provided instead/as well. Bear in mind that different literary backgrounds might understand the references as different rhetoric devices, especially once a phrase becomes idiomatic in its own right. 172.70.90.176 13:37, 19 July 2024 (UTC)

Bodily fluids (humors) had the same overlap, with early doctors thinking that fluids influenced moods (giving us terms like "sanguine", "phlegmatic", "bilious"). Could someone add a section about that? 172.70.47.23 15:28, 18 July 2024 (UTC)

Your table in the article says that "appendix" has a metaphorical meaning of "uselessness", but I don't think this is true. Can you find a dictionary that has a figurative sense? Wiktionary for example does not [1]. I think Randall may be a little confused about what is a metaphor, and may have intended "appendix" here in the sense of an extra part added to a book or academic paper etc. 172.70.85.138 08:05, 19 July 2024 (UTC)

I have, albeit rarely, heard people refer to something as 'a mere appendix to x '. However, I suspect the metaphor in those cases is more in reference to appendix as a part of a book, rather than a biological organ.172.70.90.94 09:55, 19 July 2024 (UTC)

Both biological and bibliographical uses derive, in their own way, from the Latin root term for "to hang upon(/off of)", as an added on element to something else. And most 'metaphorical' use does not deviate too far from this concept so could be considered a reference to both (or neither), according to the intent of the one who invokes it or the perception of one who receives such an invoked reference. 172.70.90.176 13:37, 19 July 2024 (UTC)

Thymus was referred to in an epigraph of supplementary material of ANSI C course taught by Z. Płoski at University of Wroclaw in winter 2005:

Polish:

Pewien pan co miał w normie grasicę
Rzekł do kumpla wychodząc z ANSI C
Drogi panie kolego, dwie godziny niczego
A ja taką do wiedzy mam chcicę

English:

A man whose thymus was normal
After ANSI C class told to his pal
Dear colleague, two hours about nothing 
Although I crave for knowledge so much

Abukaj (talk) 15:50, 19 July 2024 (UTC)

Desperately Seeking the Organ Skin 172.68.193.173 (talk) 15:02, 23 July 2024 (please sign your comments with ~~~~)