sanguisuga

See also: Sanguisuga

Italian

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin sanguisūga. Cognate with Sicilian sancu-suca.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /san.ɡwiˈsu.ɡa/
• Rhymes: -uɡa
• Hyphenation: san‧gui‧sù‧ga

Noun

sanguisuga f (plural sanguisughe)

1. leech

Synonyms

• mignatta

Related terms

• sanguisugio

Latin

Etymology

Literally, “a bloodsucker”, from sanguis (“blood”) +‎ sūgō (“suck”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [saŋ.ɡʷɪˈsuː.ɡa]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [saŋ.ɡʷiˈs̬uː.ɡa]

Noun

sanguisūga f (genitive sanguisūgae); first declension

1. a leech

   Synonym: hirūdō

   • 405 CE, Jerome, Vulgate Proverbs.30.15:

     sanguisūgae duae sunt fīliae dīcentēs adfer adfer

     The horseleech hath two daughters that say: Bring, bring. (Douay-Rheims trans., Challoner rev.; 1752 CE)

2. a vampire, an undead being which harms people and is implied to consume blood
   • 1610, William di Newburgh, Guillelmi Neubrigensis Angli, ... De rebus Anglicis suis temporis, libri quinque. Nunc primum auctiores 11. capitulis hactenus desideratis, & notis Ioannis Picardi Bellouaci ..., page 650:

     nec terrorem [alt.: territi] iuuenes, quos ira stimulabat, exanimo corpore retulerunt [alt.: vulnus exanimi corpori intulerunt]: ex quo tantus continuò sanguis effluxit, vt intelligeretur sanguisuga fuisse multorum.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Declension

First-declension noun.

	singular	plural
nominative	sanguisūga	sanguisūgae
genitive	sanguisūgae	sanguisūgārum
dative	sanguisūgae	sanguisūgīs
accusative	sanguisūgam	sanguisūgās
ablative	sanguisūgā	sanguisūgīs
vocative	sanguisūga	sanguisūgae

Descendants

• Dalmatian:
  • sansoike
• Italo-Romance:
  • Sicilian: sancusuca
• Padanian:
  • Friulian: sansuie, sansuje
  • Piedmontese: sansùa, sansuva
• Northern Gallo-Romance:
  • Franco-Provençal: sang-sua, sang-suva (Valdôtain)
  • French: sangsue
• Southern Gallo-Romance:
  • Aragonese: sansuga
  • Occitan: sangsuga

    Nord-Occitan: sangsuja

    Vivaro-Alpine: sangsua

• Ibero-Romance:
  • Old Galician-Portuguese: semesuga
    • Galician: samesuga, sambesuga
    • Portuguese: samessuga, sambessuga, samexuga, sambexuga, semessuga, sumessuga, sumbessuga
  • Old Spanish:
    • Spanish: sanguja, ⇒ sanguijuela
      • → Fala: sanguijuela
• Insular Romance:
  • Sardinian: sambesuca, sambesue
• Borrowings:
  • → Italian: sanguisuga
  • → Albanian: shushunjë
  • → Portuguese: sanguessuga

References

• “sanguisuga”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• "sanguisuga", in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• sanguisuga in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.