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Original · left

Leech (animal)

An aquatic or terrestrial bloodsucking annelid worm formerly used in traditional medical bloodletting.

First in use: ancient / pre-modern
Duplicate · right

Leech (computing)

A peer-to-peer file sharing participant who downloads data without uploading or seeding equivalent chunks back to the swarm.

First in use: the 1990s

Leech / Leech (animal) / Leech (computing)

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Duplicate share · 12 mo—
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Colour keyGrey · original meaningGreen · duplicate meaningAmber · contested (40–60%)How colours work

Bloodletting vs. BitTorrent.

Which meaning of Leech is the original, and which one is the duplicate riding on its name? Leech (animal) came first (ancient / pre-modern). Leech (computing) arrived in the 1990s. The data below shows which one owns the word now.

Wikipedia pageviews since 2015

Leech (animal)Leech (computing)
English Wikipedia pageviews since July 2015 load here.

Duplicate's share of attention

Green line = duplicate's % · above 60 it owns the word · below 40 the original does

Share-of-attention line loads here.

The case for each meaning

Sourced definitions, usage stats and quotes

Original · ancient / pre-modern

Leech (animal)

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Duplicate · the 1990s

Leech (computing)

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More duplicated terms

Internet & gaming culture