phlebotomy

phlebotomy

English

Etymology

From Old French flebothomie (French phlébotomie), from Late Latin phlebotomia, from Ancient Greek φλεβοτόμος (phlebotómos, “that opens a vein”), from φλέψ (phléps, “vein”). Synchronically (by surface analysis), phlebo- +‎ -tomy.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /flɪˈbɒtəmi/
• Rhymes: -ɒtəmi

Noun

phlebotomy (countable and uncountable, plural phlebotomies)

1. The opening of a vein, either to withdraw blood or for letting blood; venesection.
   • 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 ii:

     Phlebotomy is promiscuously used before and after physick, commonly before and upon occasion is often reiterated, if there be any need at least of it.

   • 1820, Walter Scott, Ivanhoe; a Romance. […], volume (please specify |volume=I, II, or III), Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], OCLC 230694662:

     He had even taken from his pocket a cupping apparatus, and was about to proceed to phlebotomy, when the object of his anxious solicitude suddenly revived […].

   • 1859, George Meredith, chapter 2, in The Ordeal of Richard Feverel. A History of Father and Son. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Chapman and Hall, OCLC 213819910:

     Of course, members of the family were foremost in spilling loyal blood on Marston Moor, that great field of plebotomy to so may Cavaliers.

   • 1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “(please specify the chapter number)”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019:

     Then she made an impatient gesture with her hand. "Time was, my dear colleague, when a snuff-box was as much part of my equipment as my phlebotomy case."

Synonyms

• venesection
• venipuncture

Derived terms

• phlebotomist

Translations

the opening of a vein, either to withdraw blood or for letting blood; venesection

Bulgarian: кръвопускане n (krǎvopuskane) Finnish: flebotomia (fi) French: phlébotomie (fr) f German: Aderlass (de) m Greek: φλεβοτομία (el) f (flevotomía) Hungarian: érmetszés, érvágás (hu) Ido: veinoseko (io) Italian: flebotomia (it) f Punjabi: ਪੱਛ m (paccha) Tagalog: pagtatabad Turkish: flebotomi

Further reading

• phlebotomy on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• phlebotomy in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• phlebotomy in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911
• phlebotomy at OneLook Dictionary Search