hospitalization

Etymology

It is formed from English hospitalize + -ation.^[2][3][4] The verb is formed in turn from English hospital + -ize,^[5][4][3][2] and the noun is from Old French hospital (“hostel, shelter, lodging”), from Late Latin hospitāle (“guest-house, inn”), a noun use of the neuter of Latin hospitālis (“of a guest or host”), from hospes (“guest; host”).^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Confinement to, or accommodation in, a hospital: the first record in the OED is the 1909 Webster's New International Dictionary.^[5] Etymonline dates the noun to 1873, Dictionary.com to 1905–1910, and the Shorter Oxford to the early 20th century.^[2][3][4]

Semantic evolution

The verb hospitalize is recorded once in the mid 17th century and then apparently not again until the early 20th;^[4] the OED's first modern example is from 1901,^[5] Merriam-Webster's from about 1899.^[6] Etymonline quotes the OED's remark that the verb was frequently commented on as an unhappy formation.^[2] Besides the act or state of being placed in a hospital, the noun came to mean the length of such a stay,^[6][7] and in American use also insurance that covers a patient's hospital costs.^[8]

Timeline

• 1909 – confinement to or accommodation in a hospital.^[5] Dictionary.com dates the word to 1905–1910.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act of placing someone in a hospital as a patient, or the state of being kept there: Her injuries required a week's hospitalization.^[8][6][7][5]
2. The period someone spends in a hospital.^[7][6]
3. Insurance that pays all or part of a patient's hospital costs.^[8]

Word family

• dehospitalization
• rehospitalization

Related words

• hospital
• hospitalize
• hospitality
• host
• hostel

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
4. ^ a b c d 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 d e Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
8. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt