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outpatient

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Etymology and origin of the English word outpatient

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
1715 R. Nelson, Address to Persons of Quality
Ultimate origins
English out-Old French pacient
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin patiens
French patient
German Patient
Italian paziente
English patient
English outpatient
From the same root
Latin patienter ← patiens

Pronunciation

  • /ˈaʊtˌpeɪʃ(ə)nt/[1]

Etymology

It is formed from English out- + patient.[2][3][4][5] The OED compares inpatient.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A patient who is treated at a hospital without being admitted to stay there: 1715, in R. Nelson's Address to Persons of Quality.[2][3][4] Dictionary.com dates the word to 1705–15.[5]

Semantic evolution

The word was made to distinguish patients who come to a hospital only for treatment from those who stay in it;[2][4] the matching word inpatient is recorded from 1738 in the OED, 1760 in Merriam-Webster.[2][4] It was often used attributively, as in outpatient department,[2] and Etymonline records it as an adjective by 1879.[3] From 1910 the plural Outpatients, usually with a capital, has also named the hospital department that serves such patients.[2]

Timeline

  • 1715 – a patient treated at a hospital but not admitted.[2][3][4]
  • 1879 – adjective, of or for outpatients.[3]
  • 1910 – Outpatients, the hospital department serving them.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A patient who receives treatment at a hospital or clinic without staying overnight: As an outpatient, he went home an hour after the procedure.[4][6][2][7]
  2. Outpatients: the department of a hospital that treats such patients.[2]

Adjective

  1. Of, for or relating to outpatients and their care: outpatient surgery.[6][3]

References

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

“Outpatient.” Etymologically, 31 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/en/outpatient. Accessed 1 Nov. 2026.

Last edited on . ·