Etymologically
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physician

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 16 October 2026 at 13:00. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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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

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