spital

Forms

spital n (plural spitale or spitaluri)^[1] Older and colloquial șpital (plural șpitaluri), Banat spitai and șpitai, and ospital in a document of 1785.^[2] The first record has șpitali: the Moldavian law code of 1646 rules that a man „ce-ș va trimite pre fiiu-său cel bolnav la șpitali” “who sends his sick son to the hospital” loses his paternal authority.^[3][4] Hungarian-based regional forms include ispital, ișpital and ișpitar.^[4]

Etymology

It is a loan with several sources, all going back to Latin.^[2][4] DEX and the neologism dictionaries take it borrowed from German Spital,^[5][6][1] and Wiktionary adds that German explains above all the variant șpital.^[1] Ciorănescu derives it from Italian ospitale through Modern Greek σπιτάλι (spitáli), with forms from German beside it, and compares Polish szpital and Hungarian ispitály.^[7] MDA2 and the DLR name σπιτάλι (spitáli), German, Latin hospitale and French hôpital together, and take the regional forms ispital and ișpital from ispitály.^[4][3] Tiktin calls it a pan-European word of multiple origin.^[2] Graur saw the word as a false regression from the variant with ⟨ș⟩, a view Ciorănescu rejects.^[7]

German Spital is shortened from Middle High German hospitāl, taken from Latin hospitāle (“guest room; hostel”), the noun use of the adjective hospitālis (“of a guest, hospitable”), from hospes (“guest, host”).^[8][9] The same Latin word gave French hôtel, which Romanian borrowed as hotel.^[10][1] Aromanian spital has the same form;^[11][12] Papahagi takes it from Italian ospitale.^[11][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin and MDA2 place the first record in the Moldavian law code of 1646, the Carte românească de învățătură of Vasile Lupu, in the form șpitali, for a charitable house where the sick were kept.^[2][4][3]

Semantic evolution

The first sense was a charitable institution that took in poor sick or old people;^[13] spital pentru săraci and spital de obște “public hospital” are its old phrases.^[4][3] In the 19th century it became the general word for a medical institution where the sick and injured are treated, and it was also used for the building and for its staff.^[4][3] Costinescu in 1870 still defines it as a house founded for poor sick people, and lists spital militar and the field hospital that follows an army.^[13] Older Romanian had bolniță in the same sense.^[4]

The plural spitaluri was common in the 19th century beside spitale.^[2][14] In the slang of thieves the word meant an overcoat, and among barbers an aftershave lotion.^[15][7]

Timeline

• 1646 – șpitali in the Moldavian law code of Vasile Lupu, the first record.^[2][4]
• 1785 – ospital in a document published in the Uricariul.^[2]
• 1809 – military hospitals, spitalele militare, in an official document.^[3]
• 1870 – Costinescu's dictionary defines it as a house for the poor sick.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. A hospital: a medical institution where sick or injured people are admitted and treated.^[5][4]
2. The building that houses such an institution; by extension, its staff.^[4][16]
3. (dated) A charitable house that took in poor sick or old people.^[4]
4. (slang, dated) An overcoat.^[15][7]

Word family

• spitalagiu
• spitalagioaică
• spitalicesc

Related words

• hotel
• ospiciu
• Aromanian spital
• Latin hospitale

Usage notes

The plural is spitale, with spitaluri as a less common form.^[5] Spital de nebuni is a colloquial name for a psychiatric hospital.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. spitál
3. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. spitál
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 958
5. ^ a b c DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1041
6. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. spital
7. ^ a b c d Ciorănescu, Alexandru (1958–1966), Diccionario etimológico rumano, La Laguna: Universidad de La Laguna (Romanian ed.: Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române, București: Saeculum, 2001), p. s.v. spital
8. ^ Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Graur, Alexandru (1980), Cuvinte înrudite, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică
11. ^ a b Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 967
12. ^ a b Pascu, Giorge (1925), Dictionnaire étymologique macédoroumain, 2 vols. (I: Les éléments latins et romans; II: Les éléments grecs, turcs, slaves, albanais, germaniques, magyars, néologismes, créations immédiates, obscurs), Iași: Cultura Națională, p. 1, 219
13. ^ a b c Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 545
14. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 4, 196
15. ^ a b Volceanov, George (2007), Dicționar de argou al limbii române, București: Niculescu, p. s.v. spital
16. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional