Medicine & BodyGreek → English
Phlebotomy
/flɪˈbɒtəmi/noun
The drawing of blood from a vein, for testing or as treatment.
The Greek roots
φλέψ
phléps
vein
τομή
tomḗ
a cutting
Literally: “cutting a vein”
The story of the word
For most of its life in English the word meant bleeding a patient to rebalance the humours, and English had it by the fourteenth century in forms like fleobotomie. The practice killed more people than it helped and was abandoned; the word simply changed jobs. It now names the technician who fills three tubes and sends you home, and the treatment survives for a few real conditions such as haemochromatosis.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → Old French → English
- First recorded
- 14th century
Same family
phlebitisanatomylobotomyatom
In a sentence
Phlebotomy is at the end of the corridor, first door on the left.
He gives blood by therapeutic phlebotomy every eight weeks.