horse-leech
See also: horse leech and horseleech
English edit
horse-leech on Wikipedia.Wikipedia Etymology edit
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 edit
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, partition II, section 5, member 1, subsection vi:
- Some use horse-leeches behind the ears, and apply opium to the place.
Related terms edit
Translations edit
Haemopis sanguisuga
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