physician

Pronunciation

• IPA: /fɪˈzɪʃn̩/ (UK); /fəˈzɪʃən/ (US)^[1]

Etymology

It is Middle English fisicien, borrowed from Old French fisicien (“physician, doctor, sage”),^[2][3][4][5] from fisique, the art of healing (see physic),^[2][4] from Latin physica (“natural science”), ultimately from Greek φύσις (phúsis, “nature”).^[3][6][7] The classical ph- spelling was restored from the late 14th century.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A healer, a doctor of medicine: probably before 1200, in the Ancrene Riwle;^[2][3] before 1225 in the OED.^[8]

Semantic evolution

Word Origins notes that the Old English word for a doctor was leech, a healer.^[7] A physician was distinguished from a surgeon,^[3] and one legally qualified to practise medicine is from about 1400.^[8] A healer of moral or political ills is also from about 1400.^[8] A student of natural science, a sense now obsolete, is from the early 15th century.^[8] Modern French physicien means a physicist.^[4][9]

Timeline

• c. 1200 – a healer.^[2][3]
• c. 1400 – a qualified medical practitioner; a moral healer.^[8]
• late 14th century – the ph- spelling.^[3]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A person qualified to practise medicine; a doctor.
2. A doctor who practises medicine as distinct from surgery.
3. A person or thing that heals.

Word family

• physicianly
• physicianship
• family physician

Related words

• physic
• physicist
• physical
• physics
• physique
• leech

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d e Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press