horse-leech

See also: horse leech

English

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Etymology

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

horse-leech (plural horse-leeches)

1. (obsolete) A veterinarian for horses.
2. A type of sucking worm, Haemopis sanguisuga, larger than the common leech.
   • 1621, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy, […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and Iames 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

• horse-leechery

Translations

larger than the common leech

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 馬蛭／马蛭 (zh) (mǎzhì), 马蛭 (zh) (mǎzhì)

• Czech: pijavka koňská
• Estonian: hobukaan
• Finnish: hevosjuotikas (fi)
• German: Pferdeegel m
• Hungarian: lópióca
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Japanese: ウマヒル (umahiru)
• Korean: 말거머리 (malgeomeori)
• Norwegian: hesteigle
• Polish: pijawka końska
• Russian: ко́нская пия́вка f (kónskaja pijávka)
• Swedish: hästigel
• Vietnamese: đỉa trâu