hospital

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /ˈhɒs.pɪ.təl/, US /ˈhɑː.spɪ.t̬əl/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English hospital, borrowed from Old French hospital (“hostel, shelter, lodging”), also ospital,^[2][3][4] from Medieval Latin hospitāle (“guesthouse, inn”),^[2][5][3] the noun use of the neuter of Latin hospitālis (“of a guest or host”),^[2][5] from hospes (“guest; host”), genitive hospitis,^[2][5] the source of host.^[2][6][7] The shift in Latin from the duties of hospitality to buildings may have been through the phrase cubiculum hospitālis “guest-chamber”.^[2] The same word, contracted, is hostel and hotel.^[2][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

A house for the reception of pilgrims and travellers, a hospice: about 1300,^[8][3] or the mid-13th century, “shelter for the needy”.^[2] Barnhart finds it earlier in the place name Ospitol, 1242–43.^[3]

Semantic evolution

A charitable institution to house and maintain the needy is from the early 15th century^[2] or 1418.^[8] An institution for the care of the sick or wounded is from about 1425 in the OED^[8] and by the 1540s in Etymonline;^[2] Hoad dates it to the 16th century.^[9] A school for the education of the young, as in the names of some British schools, is from 1552,^[8] and a hospital for animals from 1613.^[8] In hospital, “under treatment in a hospital”, is from 1844.^[8] The American Heritage Dictionary also records the sense “a repair shop”, as in a doll hospital.^[10]

Timeline

• 1242–43 – in a place name.^[3]
• c. 1300 – a hostel for pilgrims.^[8]
• 1418 – a charitable home for the needy.^[8]
• c. 1425 – an institution for the sick.^[8]
• 1552 – a charitable school.^[8]
• 1844 – in hospital.^[8]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. An institution that gives medical and surgical care to the sick and injured.
2. (historical) A charitable home, as for the old or for orphans.
3. A repair shop for particular items.
4. (historical) A hospice for travellers or pilgrims.

Word family

• hospitalman
• hospitalise
• hospitalism
• hospitalization
• hospitalize
• multihospital
• posthospital
• field hospital

Related words

• hospice
• hospitable
• hospitality
• hospitaller
• host
• hostel
• hotel
• hostess

Usage notes

An obsolete adjective hospital, “hospitable”, from Latin hospitālis, was used from late Middle English to the early 19th century, as in hospital Jove, protector of guests.^[4][8] In Old French ospital could also mean “hospitable”.^[2]

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
6. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin