Leechbook

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A medieval handwritten volume containing herbal remedies, charms and treatments for illness, compiled by early English physicians and healers
2. An Old English manuscript collecting medicinal recipes and cures, often used by leeches and practitioners of traditional medicine
3. A historical medical handbook from early England that set out prescriptions, remedies and healing practices for various ailments

Etymology: Before doctors had their own shelves of printed medical texts, a "leechbook" was simply a book a healer consulted. The word combines Old English "lǣċe", meaning a medical doctor, with "boc", meaning book. The "leech" element is the same word that now survives mainly for the blood-sucking worm, which was once used as a medical treatment. In Old English, though, "lǣċe" referred to the practitioner himself, and the compound named the manuscript of remedies and cures he relied on. Middle English carried the word forward as "leche" for a physician, which is why the compound was still understood as a book of healing knowledge long after the Old English period. Leechbooks were handwritten collections of herbal recipes, charms and treatments, and the word is now used mostly by historians of medicine for surviving Anglo-Saxon manuscripts of this kind.