Etymologically
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clinic

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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
  • 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