phlebotomy
(flɪˈbɒtəmɪ)
Forms: 5 fleobotomie, -ye, (flo-, flabotomye), 5–6 flebotomye, (9 -y), 6 fleubothomy(e, flebothomie, -y, phlebothomy, -tomye, 6–7 -tomie, (7 -thomie), 6– phlebotomy.
[a. OF. flebothomie (13th c. in Godef.), mod.F. phlébotomie, It. flebotomia, ad. L. phlebotomia, a. Gr. ϕλεβοτοµία, the opening of a vein, f. ϕλεβότοµος that opens a vein, f. ϕλεβο- phlebo- + -τοµος -cutting, -cutter.]
1. The action or practice of cutting open a vein so as to let blood flow, as a medical or therapeutical operation; venesection, blood-letting, bleeding.
| c 1400 Lanfranc's Cirurg. 83 A walkynge vlcus is heelid wiþ fleobotomie [v.r. flebotomye] & formacie. 1413 Pilgr. Sowle (Caxton) i. xxii. (1859) 24 The nature of thy maladye wyl aske sothely a flobotomye. 1542 Boorde Dyetary xxiii. (1870) 287 Clense it with stufes or by fleubothomye. 1621 Burton Anat. Mel. ii. v. i. ii. (1651) 384 Phlebotomy is promiscuously used before and after Physick. 1780 Johnson Let. to Mrs. Thrale 24 Aug., Gentle purges, and slight phlebotomies, are not my favourites; they are pop-gun batteries, which lose time and effect nothing. 1877 Khory Princ. Medicine 60 Marks of leech bites, and of phlebotomy. |
2. transf. and fig. The drawing of blood in any way (lit. or fig.); esp. bloodshed (i.e. scourging, slaughter, etc.), or other violent or destructive means used for the cure of moral, social, or political disorder; ‘bleeding’ in purse or pocket.
| 1589 [? Nashe] Almond for Parrat 3 b, O it is a haire⁓brande whooresonne, and well seene in Phlebotomie. 1646 J. Hall Horæ Vac. 151 Warre is the Phlebotomy of the Body Politique. 1827 Gentl. Mag. XCVII. ii. 539 Fiscal Phlebotomy was unknown, as a science, to our ancestors. |
† 3. An instrument for phlebotomy; a lancet. Obs. [Gr. ϕλεβότοµον.]
| 1477 Earl Rivers (Caxton) Dictes 33 Ypocras..holding in his honde a flabotomye of munycion for latyng blood. |