fleam

• IPA^(key): /fliːm/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːm

From Middle English fleme, fleom, from Old French flieme, flemie (“open vein”), probably via a Proto-Germanic source (compare Old Saxon flēma, Old High German fliotuma, fliodema, Old English flȳtme, flītme (“fleam, lancet”)), borrowed from Vulgar Latin fletoma, *fletomus, from Late Latin flebotomus, phlebotomus, from Ancient Greek φλεβοτόμον (phlebotómon). Compare French flamme, Dutch vlijm, German Fliete, Danish flitte (“fleam”). Doublet of phlebotome.

• phleam (archaic)

fleam (plural fleams)

1. A sharp instrument used to open a vein, to lance gums, or the like.
   • 1831-1850, William Youatt, On the Structure and the Diseases of the Horse

     A bloodstick - a piece of hard wood loaded at one end with lead — is used to strike the fleam into the vein

• (sharp instrument): lancet

• fleam saw
• fleam tooth

From Middle English fleem, flem (“the rushing of water; current”), probably from Old English flēam (“fleeing; flight; rush”), from Proto-Germanic *flaumaz (“stream; current; flood”), from Proto-Indo-European *plew- (“to fly; flow; run”). Cognate with Norwegian Nynorsk flaum (“flood”).

• fleem

fleam (plural fleams)

1. (UK, dialectal, Northern England) The watercourse or runoff from a mill; millstream
2. (UK, dialectal, Northern England) A large trench or gully cut into a meadow in order to drain it

• fleme (verb)
• Flemish

• femal, flame

fleam

1. first-person singular present active subjunctive of fleō

fleam

1. (Early Middle English) Alternative form of flem

From Proto-Germanic *flaumaz.

• IPA^(key): /flæ͜ɑːm/

flēam m

1. escape, flight

   Fram sagum ne biþ nān flēam: hīe nabbaþ nānne anġinn and nānne ende.

   There is no escape from stories: they have no beginning and no end.

   Þā ġeflogenan rǣplingas sind nū ġīet on flēame.

   The escaped prisoners are still on the run (literally "in flight" or "in an escape").

• flīeman
• tōflēam

• Middle English: flem, fleem, fleme; flæm, fleam, vlem
  • English: fleam (dialectal)
  • Scots: fleem