Etymologically
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clinice

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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]

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