Dictionary

leechbook en · NOUN

Etymology

From Middle English leche (“doctor, physician”), from Old English lǣċe (“medical doctor”) + boc (“book”).

Meanings

1. (historical) A medical text of the Anglo-Saxon era; a compilation of medicinal cures and remedies used by leeches.
   • One of the old Leech Books gives the formula for a salve against the "elfin race and nocturnal goblin visitors." Fourteen herbs, including wormwood, viper's bugloss and fennel, were first gathered. 1940, Rosetta E. Clarkson, Green Enchantments: The Magic Spell of Gardens, The Macmillan Company, page 257:
   • Even with the Anglo Saxon leech books, we are dealing with ancient wisdom filtered and diffused into another age and culture. 1978, Keith Vincent Smith, The Illustrated Earth Garden Herbal, Melbourne: Thomas Nelson Australia, page 22, column 2:
   • 2004, J. P. Griffin treacle and the foundation of medicines regulation The first was directly from Byzantine or other eastern sources, for example a Saxon leechbook of the 11th century records that Abel the Patriarch of Jerusalem sent Mithridatium or theriac to King Alfred the Great, who died on 26 October 899
   • This Saxon manuscript has a dignity which is unique, for it is the oldest existing leech book written in the vernacular. 1922, Eleanour Sinclair Rohde, The Old English Herbals, London: Longmans, Green and Co., page 5:

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