infirmary

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English infirmarie,^[2][3] borrowed from Medieval Latin īnfirmāria (“a place for the infirm, hospital”),^{[4][3][5][6][7]} also īnfirmārium,^[5][8][2] from Latin īnfirmus (“weak, frail”), the source of infirm,^[4][6][3] with the suffix that gives English -ary.^[5][8][9] Etymonline also names Old French enfermerie (“hospital”) as a source,^[6] and the OED takes some obsolete spellings as perhaps from French infirmerie, earlier enfermerie, like Spanish enfermería and Italian infermeria.^[4] The Anglo-Norman word is recorded from the 12th century for a monastic infirmary, the sick quarters of a religious house.^[10] The aphetic Middle English form was fermerie, which infirmary replaced from the 16th century.^[4][11][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

A monastic infirmary, a sick bay: 1451, in Capgrave's life of St Gilbert, where a nun's sisters carry her to the infirmary after she has hurt her foot.^[2][5] Etymonline gives the same sense, a sick bay in a monastery, from the mid-15th century.^[6] The OED's first record is from 1625, in Bacon's Essays.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Fifteenth-century records use it for the sick quarters of monks and nuns, as in the registers of Oseney and Godstow.^[2] It was later used for the sick quarters of any institution, a school or workhouse, and for a hospital in general;^[4][9] Johnson (1755) defined it as "lodgings for the sick", quoting Bacon.^[13] In the 18th century it was the common British name for a public hospital,^[5][6] a use kept in names such as the Royal Infirmary in Liverpool and Edinburgh and the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary.^[5] Sloane used it in 1707 for a house for rearing delicate plants, a conservatory, a sense that did not last.^[4]

Timeline

• 1451 – a monastic infirmary, sick bay.^[2][5]
• 1625 – a hospital, or the sick quarters of an institution.^[4]
• 1707 – a conservatory for delicate plants (obsolete).^[4]
• 18th century – the usual British name for a public hospital.^[5][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A place where sick or injured people are looked after; a hospital or dispensary.^[14][8][4]
2. A room or building where the sick or injured members of an institution, such as a school, monastery or prison, are treated: The boy with the sprained ankle spent the night in the school infirmary.^[8][4][9]

Word family

• infirmarian

Related words

• infirm
• infirmity
• fermery
• firm

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
11. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
12. ^ Stratmann, Francis Henry (1891), A Middle-English Dictionary, revised by Henry Bradley, Oxford: Clarendon Press
13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
14. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins