An obsolete or dialectal variant of phlegm, referring to thick mucus or mucous discharge from the body.
A shortened form of flegm, itself from Old French flegme and Greek phlegma, representing a simplified or informal spelling from historical English dialects.
The many different spellings of this word—flem, flegm, phlegm—show how medical terminology was gradually standardized in English as doctors began using Latin spelling conventions.
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