horse-leech
See also: horse leech and horseleech
English
horse-leech on Wikipedia.Wikipedia Etymology
From Middle English horseleche, horse leche (“horse doctor; bloodsucker, leech”), equivalent to horse + leech.So called because it commonly attacks the membrane that lines the inside of the mouth and nostrils of animals, such as horses, that drink at pools where it lives.
Noun
horse-leech (plural horse-leeches)
- (obsolete) A veterinarian for horses.
- A type of sucking worm, Haemopis sanguisuga, larger than the common leech.
- 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed by John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, OCLC 54573970, partition II, section 5, member 1, subsection vi:
- Some use horse-leeches behind the ears, and apply opium to the place.
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Related terms
- horse-leechery
Translations
Haemopis sanguisuga
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