Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun The act or operation of incising a leech while sucking, so that the ingested blood may escape, and the leech continue to suck.
- noun The application of the bdellometer.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun archaic The
snipping off thetail of aleech engaged in sucking humanblood , in order to let the blood run out of it and so increase its powers ofdrawing blood.
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Irregularly formed as the Ancient Greek βδέλλᾰ (bdella, "leech") + the English -tomy (from -τοµία, -tomia, “a cutting”; from τέμνω, temnō, “I cut”); the etymological spelling is bdellotomy.
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Examples
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qroqqa commented on the word bdellatomy
the practice of cutting leeches to empty them of blood while they still continue to suck
(Greek bdella "leech", tom- "cut")
August 19, 2008
yarb commented on the word bdellatomy
Also listed as bdellotomy.
August 20, 2008
qroqqa commented on the word bdellatomy
Oh, 'bdellotomy' is better. That's not in the OED yet, but 'bdellatomy' is irregular: in Greek compounds you always use the stem (bdell-) and the connective vowel -o- between consonants.
August 20, 2008