κλινική

Forms

κλῑνική (klīnikḗ) f (genitive κλινικῆς); first declension.^[1][2][3]

Etymology

It is from Ancient Greek κλινικός (klīnikós, “of or for a bed”), its feminine used as a noun with τέχνη (tékhnē, “art, craft”) understood.^[1][3][4][5] The adjective is from κλίνη (klínē, “bed, couch”) with the suffix -ικός (-ikós), and the noun comes from κλίνω (klínō, “to lean, incline”).^[6][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first recorded in the 1st century AD, in Pliny the Elder's Natural History (29.4), for the method of the physician who treats patients confined to bed.^[1][3][4]

Semantic evolution

The masculine κλινικός (klīnikós) was that physician himself, the doctor who visits his patients in their beds, in Galen and in an epigram of Nicarchus; it was also the title of a work by Damocrates.^[1][8] Pape notes that the feminine for the medical art is only late.^[8]

Modern Greek uses the learned word Modern Greek κλινική (klinikí) for a department of a hospital that treats one speciality and for a private hospital.^[9][4] Those senses were taken from French clinique and English clinic.^[9][10][4]

Timeline

• 1st century AD – Pliny the Elder names the bedside method of medicine with the Greek term.^[1][3]
• 1st century AD – An epigram of Nicarchus calls a doctor who visits the bedridden a κλινικός (klīnikós).^[1][11]
• 2nd century AD – Galen uses the masculine for such a physician.^[1][11]
• Modern Greek – The learned κλινική (klinikí) means a hospital department or a private hospital, after French and English usage.^[9][10][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. Clinical medicine: the art of treating patients who are confined to bed.^[1][2][3]

Related words

• κλινικός (klīnikós)
• κλίνη (klínē)
• κλίνω (klínō)
• English clinic

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
2. ^ a b Korinthios, J. (2025), Grande Dizionario Greco Classico: Greco–Italiano, digital ed., Milan: Hoepli
3. ^ a b c d e Дворецкий, И. Х. (1958), Древнегреческо-русский словарь, Moscow: ГИС
4. ^ a b c d e Τεγόπουλος, Γ.; Φυτράκης, Ε. (1997), Μείζον Ελληνικό Λεξικό, Athens: Αρμονία
5. ^ Πολυλεξικό, in the encyclopedia Επιστήμη και Ζωή, Athens
6. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
7. ^ Bailly, Anatole (2020), Dictionnaire grec-français, Bailly 2020 Hugo Chávez ed., ed. Gérard Gréco et al.
8. ^ a b Pape, Wilhelm (1914), Griechisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 3rd ed., rev. Max Sengebusch, Braunschweig: Vieweg
9. ^ a b c Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
10. ^ a b Ακαδημία Αθηνών (2014), Χρηστικό Λεξικό της Νεοελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens: Academy of Athens
11. ^ a b Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge