fleam

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fliːm/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːm

Etymology 1

From Middle English fleme, fleom, from Old French flieme, flemie (“open vein”), probably via a Proto-Germanic source (compare Old Saxon flēma, Old High German fliotuma, fliodema, Old English flȳtme (“fleam, lancet”)), borrowed from Vulgar Latin fletoma, *fletomus, from Late Latin flebotomus, phlebotomus, from Ancient Greek φλεβοτόμον (phlebotómon). Compare French flamme, Dutch vlijm, German Fliete, Danish flitte (“fleam”). Doublet of phlebotome.

Alternative forms

• phleam (archaic)

Noun

fleam (plural fleams)

1. A sharp instrument used to open a vein, to lance gums, or the like.
   • 1831-1850, William Youatt, On the Structure and the Diseases of the Horse

     A bloodstick - a piece of hard wood loaded at one end with lead — is used to strike the fleam into the vein

Hypernyms

• (sharp instrument): lancet

Derived terms

• fleam saw
• fleam tooth
• fleamy

Translations

medical instrument

• Bulgarian: ланцет m (lancet)
• Greek: φλεβοτόμος (el) m (flevotómos)
• Ottoman Turkish: نیشتر (nişter, neşter), مفصد (mifsad)

Etymology 2

From Middle English fleem, flem (“the rushing of water; current”), probably from Old English flēam (“fleeing; flight; rush”), from Proto-Germanic *flaumaz (“stream; current; flood”), from Proto-Indo-European *plew- (“to fly; flow; run”). Cognate with Norwegian Nynorsk flaum (“flood”).

Alternative forms

• fleem

Noun

fleam (plural fleams)

1. (UK, dialectal, Northern England) The watercourse or runoff from a mill; millstream
2. (UK, dialectal, Northern England) A large trench or gully cut into a meadow in order to drain it

Related terms

• fleme (verb)
• Flemish

Anagrams

• femal, flame

Latin

Verb

fleam

1. first-person singular present active subjunctive of fleō

Middle English

Noun

fleam

1. (Early Middle English) alternative form of flem

Old English

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *flaumaz.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /flæ͜ɑːm/

Noun

flēam m

1. escape, flight

   Fram sagum ne biþ nān flēam: hīe nabbaþ nānne anġinn and nānne ende.

   There is no escape from stories: they have no beginning and no end.

   Þā ġeflogenan rǣplingas sind nū ġīet on flēame.

   The escaped prisoners are still on the run (literally "in flight" or "in an escape").

   • Homilies of the Anglo-Saxon Church

     Sē wōda ðā āwende āweġ his ċeaflas fram ðǣre hālgan handa, swilċe fram hātum īsene, and sē āwyrġeda gāst ġewāt of ðām men ūt ðurh his ġesċēapu, mid sċēandlīcum flēame.

     The madman then turned his cheeks away from the holy man's hands as if from hot iron, and the accursed spirit departed the man through his genitals with shameful flight.

Declension

Strong a-stem:

	singular	plural
nominative	flēam	flēamas
accusative	flēam	flēamas
genitive	flēames	flēama
dative	flēame	flēamum

Derived terms

• flīeman
• tōflēam

Descendants

• Middle English: flem, fleem, fleme, flæm, fleam, vlem (Early Middle English)
  • English: fleam (dialectal)
  • Scots: fleem