læce

• læca

• IPA^(key): /ˈlæː.t͡ʃe/

From Proto-West Germanic *lākī, from Proto-Germanic *lēkijaz. Cognate with Old Frisian lētza, Old Saxon lāki, Old High German lāhhi, Old Norse *lækir, Gothic 𐌻𐌴𐌺𐌴𐌹𐍃 (lēkeis).

lǣċe m

1. doctor (physician)
   • late 9th century, King Alfred's translation of Boethius' The Consolation of Philosophy

     Hine man sċeal lǣdan tō þām lǣċe.

     He should be taken to the doctor.

2. (in compounds) medical

• lācnestre

• Middle English: leche
  • English: leech (archaic)

Probably assimilated to Etymology 1 above, by popular etymology, though its use probably predated the term for a doctor.

Of uncertain ultimate origin, but possibly from a Germanic base meaning "to pluck, tear" (compare Old High German liochan (“to tear”)), evolving into "suck," ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *lewǵ- (“to break, tear”), see also Ancient Greek λευγαλέος (leugaléos), λυγρός (lugrós), Sanskrit रुजति (rujati, “to break open, shatter, injure, cause pain”), Latvian lauzt (“to break, fracture”).^[1]

Cognate with Middle Dutch lake, leke (modern Dutch laak).

lǣċe m

1. leech

• Middle English: leche
  • English: leech

• John R. Clark Hall (1960) “lǣce”, in A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, 4th edition, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, page 208