semesuga
Old Galician-Portuguese
Etymology
Inherited from Latin sanguisūga, from sanguis + sūgō.
Noun
*semesuga f (plural semesugas)
- leech
- 1420, Álvaro Eans das Eiras, transl., Tratado de Albeitaria, translation of De Medicina Equorum by Giordano Ruffo, page 135:
- Para esto ual reer o lugar jnchado et çercallo de semesugas para liurar ende o sange que y ha para seyr fora
- For this is valid to shave the swollen place and then to encircle it with leeches, so freeing the blood that is there, letting it go out
Usage notes
- Only attested in the plural.
Descendants
- Galician: samesuga, sambesuga
- Portuguese: samessuga, sambessuga, samexuga, sambexuga, semessuga, sumessuga, sumbessuga
References
- Xavier Varela Barreiro, Xavier Gómez Guinovart (2006–2018) “semesuga”, in Corpus Xelmírez - Corpus lingüístico da Galicia medieval (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega