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leech-finger

noun

Etymology

From Middle English leche fingir, læchefinger, from Old English lǣċefinger (“fourth finger, leech-finger”), equivalent to leech (“physician”) + finger. Compare Old Norse lǽknisfingr (“leech-finger”), Icelandic læknisfingur. According to medieval belief, a nerve or artery ran from this digit to the heart. It gave the finger a prominent role in medical lore and practice. Doctors would use it when applying treatments, for example.

  1. inherited from lǣċefinger
  2. inherited from leche fingir

Definitions

  1. The finger next to the little finger

    The finger next to the little finger; ring-finger.

    • Sing three Our Fathers on your leechfinger, and write around the sore.
    • The Leech finger has Coll on it, the sage Hazel, who is the master physician, and is surmounted by Saille, the Willow of enchantment.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for leech-finger. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA