clinice

Forms

clīnicē f (genitive clīnicēs, accusative clīnicēn)^[1][2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek κλινική (klinikḗ, “(the art) at the sickbed”),^[1][2][4] with the noun τέχνη (tékhnē, “art”) understood.^[2][5][6] The Greek word is made on κλίνη (klínē, “bed, couch”),^[4][6] which Köbler and Etymonline trace to Proto-Indo-European *k̑lei- (“to lean”).^[4][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Pliny the Elder reports that, as Varro believed, Hippocrates founded the kind of medicine called clīnicē.^[3][7][4]

Semantic evolution

Pliny also says that in quartan fevers clinical medicine, medicīna clīnicē, is almost powerless,^[3][2][1] and Hyginus' Fabulae say that Asclepius discovered it.^[3][5] Italian clinica continues it,^[8] and German Klinik goes back to it.^[4] English clinic came in the 1620s from French, from the related clīnicus.^[6]

Timeline

• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder names the medicine called clīnicē.^[3][4]
• 2nd century AD? – Hyginus says that Asclepius discovered it.^[3][5][4]
• 1620s – English clinic is recorded, from French.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. Clinical medicine, the treatment of patients at the sickbed.^[1][2][5][8]

Adjective

1. (feminine, with medicīna) Clinical, practised at the sickbed.^[1][3]

Related words

• English clinic

References

1. ^ a b c d e Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
2. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
6. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
8. ^ a b Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier