It forms all or part of: defile (n.) "narrow passage;" enfilade; filament; file (v.1) "place (papers) in consecutive order for future reference;" filigree; filipendulous; fillet; profile.
It is the hypothetical source of/evidence for its existence is provided by: Avestan jya- "bowstring;" Latin filum "a thread, string;" Armenian jil "sinew, string, line;" Lithuanian gysla "vein, sinew;" Old Church Slavonic zila "vein."
1670s, in botany, "rootlet, part of the embryo of a plant which develops into the primary root," from Latin radicula, diminutive of radix "root" (from PIE root *wrād- "branch, root"). Anatomical sense of "branch of a nerve, vein, etc. resembling a root" is by 1830.
"blood-letting," c. 1400, flebotomye, fleobotomie, from Old French flebotomie (13c., Modern French phlébotomie) and directly from Medieval Latin phlebotomia, from Greek phlebotomia "blood-letting," from phlebotomos "opening veins," from phleps (genitive phlebos) "a vein" (a word of uncertain origin) + tomē "a cutting" (from PIE root *tem- "to cut").
1792, from Arabic mahdiy, literally "he who is guided aright," past participle of hada "to lead in the right way." In Islamic belief, a spiritual and temporal leader destined to appear on earth during the last days. Applied c. 1880 to insurrectionary leaders in the Sudan who claimed to be him. Related: Mahdism; Mahdiism; Mahdian.
