phlebotomy

English

Etymology

From Old French flebothomie (French phlébotomie), from Late Latin phlebotomia, from Ancient Greek φλεβοτόμος (phlebotómos, “that opens a vein”), from φλέψ (phléps, “vein”). Synchronically (by surface analysis), phlebo- +‎ -tomy.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /flɪˈbɒtəmi/

Noun

phlebotomy (countable and uncountable, plural phlebotomies)

1. The opening of a vein, either to withdraw blood or for letting blood; venesection.
   • 1621, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy, […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed by John Lichfield and Iames Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition II, section 5, member 1, subsection ii:

     Phlebotomy is promiscuously used before and after physick, commonly before and upon occasion is often reiterated, if there be any need at least of it.

   • 1819, Walter Scott, Ivanhoe:

     He had even taken from his pocket a cupping apparatus, and was about to proceed to phlebotomy, when the object of his anxious solicitude suddenly revived […].

Synonyms

• venesection
• venipuncture

Derived terms

• phlebotomist

Translations

the opening of a vein, either to withdraw blood or for letting blood; venesection

• French: phlébotomie (fr) f
• Greek: φλεβοτομία (el) f (flevotomía)
• Ido: veinoseko (io)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Italian: flebotomia f
• Tagalog: pagtatabad

Further reading

• phlebotomy on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• “phlebotomy”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “phlebotomy”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “phlebotomy”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.