# bdellatomy

> English word · Noun

## Definitions
1. The snipping off the tail of a leech engaged in sucking human blood, in order to let the blood run out of it and so increase its powers of drawing blood.

## Etymology
Irregularly formed as Ancient Greek βδέλλᾰ (bdéllă, “leech”) + -tomy (from -τοµία (-toµía, “a cutting”); from τέμνω (témnō, “I cut”); the etymological spelling is bdellotomy.

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/bdellatomy