clinic

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈklɪn.ɪk/^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French clinique and Latin clīnicus (“physician who visits patients in bed”),^[2][3][4] from Ancient Greek κλινική (klinikḗ, “practice at the sickbed”), from κλινικός (klinikós, “of the bed”), from κλίνη (klínē, “bed”), from κλίνω (klínō, “to lean”) (see lean).^[3][2][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

A bedridden person: before 1626, a sense now rare or obsolete.^[3][6][7]

Semantic evolution

In church history, one who put off baptism until his deathbed is from 1666,^[6][2] and a clinical physician from 1751.^[6] The teaching of medicine at the bedside, from French clinique, is from the mid-19th century.^[8][5][7] A place for medical treatment, especially of outpatients, is first recorded in 1884, via German Klinik;^[3][2] Etymonline notes that the modern sense reverses the classical one, in which the clinic came to the patient.^[2] A session of instruction, as a golf clinic, is from 1919.^[2]

Timeline

• before 1626 – a bedridden person.^[3][6]
• 1666 – one who delays baptism.^[6]
• mid-19th century – bedside teaching.^[8]
• 1884 – a place for treatment.^[3][2]
• 1919 – a session of instruction.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A place where outpatients receive medical treatment or advice.
2. A session at which doctors give advice on a particular condition: an antenatal clinic.
3. A session of instruction on a subject: a coaching clinic.

Word family

• monoclinic
• polyclinic
• triclinic
• clinical
• clinician

Related words

• cline
• lean
• incline
• recline

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press