leechdom
nounEtymology From Middle English lechedom, from Old English lǣċedōm (“medicament, medicine; healing, salvation”), equivalent to leech + -dom.
1
Archaic A medicine; remedy.
- That shall be a leechdom for her, for the one who there combeth her head.1864, Thomas Oswald Cockayne, Leechdoms, Wortcunning, and Starcraft of Early England:
- Egina, the English practitioner of the time would make a collection of receipts, prescriptions, or leechdoms for the various injuries, wounds, and common maladies, substituting the native herbs when foreign drugs were not to be had.1903, Henry Duff Traill, James Saumarez Mann, Social England:
2 more examples
- A leechdom if thou will that an ill swelling and the venomous humour should burst out.quoted in 1965, Rerum Britannicarum Medii Ævi scriptores
- The leechdom was for equal quantities of betony, celandine and yarrow juice mixed together, and then applied to the eyes.2007, Donald Watts, Dictionary of Plant Lore - Page 141: