Etimology
From Middle English hospital, hospitall, from Old French hospital (Modern French hôpital), from Late Latin hospitālis, hospitāle (“hospice, shelter, guesthouse”), from noun use of Latin hospitālis (“hospitable”), from hospes (“host, guest”). Doublet of hotel and hostel. Displaced native Middle English lechehous, from Old English lǣċehūs (literally “doctor house”).
noun
hospital (countable and uncountable, plural hospitals)
A large medical facility, usually in a building with multiple floors, where seriously ill or injured patients are given extensive medical and/or surgical treatment.
A building founded for the long-term care of its residents, such as an almshouse. The residents may have no physical ailments, but simply need financial support.
(obsolete) A place of lodging.
Examples
Luckily an ambulance arrived quickly and he was rushed to hospital.
Luckily an ambulance arrived quickly and he was rushed to the hospital.
This section of the Act gives the court powers to assess whether treatment is going to be beneficial and hence whether hospital is a suitable disposal option.
[…] they spide a goodly castle, plast / Foreby a riuer in a pleasaunt dale, / Which choosing for that euenings hospitale, / They thither marcht […]
Related words
synonyms
sickhouse
hyponyms
clinic (small hospitals); field hospital (mobile, military); asylum, institution (mental health); leprosarium, leprosery, lazar house (leprosy); lazaret, lazaretto (port quarantine)
coordinate terms
infirmary, nurse's office (rooms within a larger institution such as a school); surgery (UK), doctor's office (separate medical practices)
related terms
hospice
hospitable
hospitality
host
adjective
hospital (comparative more hospital, superlative most hospital)
(obsolete) Hospitable.
Examples
At last the Ocean, that hospital friend to the wretched, opened her capacious arms to receive him; and he instantly resolved to accept her kind invitation.