lymph means pure water.
lymph is pronounced /lɪmf/.
Why “lymph” is a great word
A colorless bodily fluid containing white blood cells, which bathes the tissues, drains through the lymphatic system, and eventually merges with the bloodstream. From the Latin lympha ("clear water, a goddess of water"), itself from the Ancient Greek νύμφη (nýmphē, "bride; spring water"), first attested in English in the physiological sense c. 1725. Unlike plasma, the named vehicle within the veins, or serum, its clarified and clotting-depleted cousin, lymph is the interstitial wanderer, the reclaimed seepage of the vascular realm. It is the pale tide that swells a blister, beads on a fresh wound, and pools silently in the body's forgotten channels—the humoral echo of our inner, briny seas, a patient underground river carrying the debris of life.
Etymology
Borrowing from French lymphe and/or Latin lympha (“clear water”), from Ancient Greek νῠ́μφη (nŭ́mphē, “bride; spring water”). Doublet of nymph.
noun
- Pure water.
- Pure water.; The sap of plants.
- A colourless, watery, coagulable bodily fluid which bathes the tissues and is carried by the lymphatic system into the bloodstream; it resembles blood plasma in containing white blood cells and especially lymphocytes but normally few red blood cells and no platelets.
- A colourless, watery, coagulable bodily fluid which bathes the tissues and is carried by the lymphatic system into the bloodstream; it resembles blood plasma in containing white blood cells and especially lymphocytes but normally few red blood cells and no platelets.; The discharge from a sore, inflammation etc.e.g.“She lay face-down, an infected puncture point on the inside of her thigh oozing a faint lymph.”
Words closest in meaning
By meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.
- ichor 84% match — The liquid said to flow in place of blood in the veins of the gods. vs lymph →
- depuration 80% match — The removal of impurities, especially from bodily fluids; purification, cleansing. vs lymph →
- lifeblood 79% match — Blood that is needed for continued life; blood regarded as the seat of life. vs lymph →
- limpid 79% match — Clear, transparent or bright. vs lymph →
- nectar 78% match — The drink of the gods. vs lymph →
- menses 77% match — The discharge of blood and cellular tissue that flows from the inner lining of the uterus out through the vagina, occurring typically once a month in uninseminated women; a menstrual flow. vs lymph →
- rheum 77% match — Thin or watery discharge of mucus or serum, especially from the eyes or nose, formerly thought to cause disease. vs lymph →
- exsanguinate 77% match — To drain (a living or dead body, or (medicine, surgery) a body part) of blood. vs lymph →