Fleam

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /fliːm/

Definitions

1. A small sharp instrument used in the past to cut veins for bloodletting purposes
2. A pointed blade once employed by doctors to open veins and draw blood as a medical treatment
3. An ancient lancet-like tool designed for making incisions in veins to release blood

Etymology: A fleam was a small spring-loaded lancet, used for bloodletting: a blade folded into a handle and struck into a vein, a practice once thought to cure almost any ailment. The name is a doublet of "phlebotome," and it traces back to Ancient Greek "phlebotomon," literally "vein-cutter," built from "phleps" (vein) and "temnein" (to cut). The Greek term passed into Late Latin as "phlebotomus," then into Vulgar Latin as "fletoma," and from there into Old French as "flieme," meaning "open vein." Old English had a cognate, "flȳtme," showing the blade was known in the north long before English borrowed the French form. The word fleam also has a separate and unrelated origin. In Middle English "fleem" meant the rushing of water or a current, probably from Old English "flēam," meaning flight or a rush, descended from a Germanic root for stream or flood. The two words sound alike by coincidence, and the surgical sense is the one that survives in modern usage.