1818, French, short for pâté de foie gras (1827 in English), literally "pie of fat liver;" originally served in a pastry (as still in Alsace), the phrase now chiefly in English with reference to the filling. French foie "liver" is cognate with Italian fegato, from Latin *ficatum. For pâté see pâté (n.2); for gras see grease (n.).
"chronic inflammation of connective tissue," originally and especially of the liver, 1827, coined in Modern Latin by French physician René-Théophile-Hyacinthe Laennec with -osis and Greek kirros "red-yellow, yellow-brown, tawny," which is of unknown origin. The form is erroneous, presuming Greek *kirrhos. So called for the orange-yellow appearance of the diseased liver. Related: Cirrhotic.
metallic sulfide, 1796, shortened from hepar sulphuris (1690s), from Medieval Latin, from Greek hēpar "liver" (see hepatitis); so called for its color.
1706, "small pie or pastry," from French pâté, from Old French paste, earlier pastée, from paste (see paste (n.)). Especially pâté de foie gras (1827), which was originally a pie or pastry filled with fatted goose liver; the word now generally is used of the filling itself.
1936, coined from lobe (in the brain sense) + medical suffix -tomy "a cutting." Figurative use is attested from 1953. Lobectomy (attested from 1911) was in use earlier in reference to lobes of other organs (lungs, liver).
Now I guess I'll have to tell 'em
That I got no cerebellum
[Ramones, "Teenage Lobotomy," 1977]
"bile, liver secretion," Old English galla (Anglian), gealla (West Saxon) "gall, bile," from Proto-Germanic *gallon "bile" (source also of Old Norse gall "gall, bile; sour drink," Old Saxon galle, Old High German galla, German Galle), from PIE root *ghel- (2) "to shine," with derivatives denoting "green, yellow," and thus "bile, gall." Informal sense of "impudence, boldness" first recorded American English 1882; but meaning "embittered spirit, rancor" is from c. 1200, from the old medicine theory of humors.
