leech
English
/liːtʃ/
noun
Definitions
- An aquatic blood-sucking annelid of class Hirudinea, especially .
- (figuratively) A person who derives profit from others in a parasitic fashion.
- (medicine) A glass tube designed for drawing blood from damaged tissue by means of a vacuum.
Etymology
Inherited from Middle English leche (physician, blood-sucking worm, sluggish stream, doctor, leachate) inherited from Old English lǣċe (doctor, physician, medical doctor, blood-sucking worm).
Origin
Old English
lǣċe
Gloss
doctor, physician, medical doctor, blood-sucking worm
Concept
Semantic Field
The body
Ontological Category
Person/Thing
Kanji
医
Emoji
Timeline
Distribution of cognates by language
Geogrpahic distribution of cognates
Cognates and derived terms
- Letcher English
- cow English
- cowleech English
- finger English
- horse English
- horse-leech English
- land English
- land-leech English
- leach English
- leech-finger English
- leechbook English
- leechcraft English
- leechdom English
- leecher English
- leechiness English
- leechlike English
- leechline English
- leechy English
- line English
- water English
- water-leech English
- laak Dutch, Flemish
- lege Norwegian Nynorsk
- *lǣċ Old English
- læceboc Old English
- læcecræft Old English
- læcedom Old English
- læcehus Old English
- læceseax Old English
- lǣċe Old English
- horseleche Middle English
- leche Middle English
- leche fingir Middle English
- lechecraft Middle English
- lechedom Middle English
- waterleche Middle English
- læge Danish
- overlæge Danish
- øre-næse-hals-læge Danish
- lake Middle Dutch
- *laka Old Dutch
- læke Old Danish