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”). By surface analysis, phlebo- +‎ -tomy.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /flɪˈbɒtəmi/, /fləˈbɒtəmi/
• Rhymes: -ɒtəmi

Noun

phlebotomy (countable and uncountable, plural phlebotomies)

1. The opening of a vein, either to withdraw blood or for letting blood; venesection.
   • 1607 (first performance), [Francis Beaumont], The Knight of the Burning Pestle, London: […] [Nicholas Okes] for Walter Burre, […], published 1613, →OCLC, Act IV, signature I3, verso:

     Now butter with a leafe of Sage is good to Parge the bloud, Fly Venus and Phlebotomy for they are neither good.

   • 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James 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 December 20 (indicated as 1820), Walter Scott, Ivanhoe; a Romance. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], →OCLC:

     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 […].

   • 1859, George Meredith, chapter 2, in The Ordeal of Richard Feverel. A History of Father and Son. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Chapman and Hall, →OCLC:

     Of course, members of the family were foremost in spilling loyal blood on Marston Moor, that great field of plebotomy to so may Cavaliers.

   • 1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “(please specify the chapter number)”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019:

     Then she made an impatient gesture with her hand. "Time was, my dear colleague, when a snuff-box was as much part of my equipment as my phlebotomy case."

Synonyms

• venesection
• venipuncture

Derived terms

• phlebotomist

Translations

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

• Bulgarian: кръвопускане n (krǎvopuskane)
• Finnish: flebotomia (fi)
• French: phlébotomie (fr) f
• German: Aderlass (de) m
• Greek: φλεβοτομία (el) f (flevotomía)

  Ancient Greek: φλεβοτομία f (phlebotomía)

• Hungarian: érmetszés, érvágás (hu)
• Ido: veinoseko (io)
• Italian: flebotomia (it) f
• Latin: phlebotomia f
• Ottoman Turkish: قان (kan)
• Portuguese: flebotomia f
• Punjabi: ਪੱਛ m (paccha)
• Spanish: flebotomía f
• Tagalog: pagtatabad
• Turkish: flebotomi

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.