The Greek word for leech. Webster 1913 seems to have ignored it. We use it as a root for a few English words, albeit obscure and unloved words.

Bdell- and Bdello-: Prefixes meaning 'leech'.

-bdella: A postfix meaning leech. This shows up in genera names in helminthology.

Bdellatomy: the practice of cutting open the stomach of a sucking leech. If you don't do this the leech will let go when he is full, but cutting a small hole in the leeches stomach guarantees that he will never be full. This was apparently a great advance in the art of bloodletting.

Bdellidae: A family of mites that feed on insects or other mites.

Bdellodrilus: A genus of small leechlike oligochaete worms that live as parasites on the gills of crayfishes.

Bdellodrilus: Like or relating to a leech.

Bdelloid: A leech.

Bdelloida: An order of Rotifera forms that can swim freely and creep like leeches.

Bdellonemertea: An order of Nemertea made of short, thick bodied forms with a large posterior sucker and no eyes or cerebral organ.

Bdellonyssus: A genus of mites that feed on vertebrates.

Bdelloura: A genus of triclad flatworms that live in the gills of horseshoe crabs.

But if you guessed that bdellium belong on this list, you would be wrong. It's a gum resin that comes from trees of the genus Commiphora, and is similar to myrrh. It has nothing to do with leeches; its name is an unfortunate coincidence.

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