hospital

Alternative forms

• hospitale (obsolete)

Etymology

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”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈhɒs.pɪ.tl̩/

  • Audio (UK):

    (file)

• (obsolete, Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈɒs.pɪ.tl̩/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈhɑs.pɪ.tl̩/, /ˈhɑs.pɪ.ɾl̩/

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

Noun

hospital (countable and uncountable, plural hospitals)

2. 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.

   Luckily an ambulance arrived quickly and he was rushed to hospital. (UK)

   Luckily an ambulance arrived quickly and he was rushed to the hospital. (US)

   • 2010, Sameer P. Sarkar, “Mental health law and the mentally disordered offender”, in Annie Bartlett, Gill McGauley, editors, Forensic Mental Health: Concepts, Systems, and Practice, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, section 3 (Law), page 265:

     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.

3. 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.

   The foundling hospital took in abandoned children and educated them.

4. (obsolete) A place of lodging.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto IX”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     […] they spide a goodly castle, plast / Foreby a riuer in a pleasaunt dale, / Which choosing for that euenings hospitale, / They thither marcht […]

Adjective

hospital (comparative more hospital, superlative most hospital)

1. (obsolete) Hospitable.
   • 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC:

     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.

Etymology

Recent borrowing from Spanish hospital from Late Latin hospitālis, hospitāle (“hospice, shelter, guesthouse”), from Latin hospitālis (“hospitable”). Compare native hespital.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ospiˈtal/, [os.piˈt̪al]
• Rhymes: -al
• Hyphenation: hos‧pi‧tal

Noun

hospital m (plural hospitales)

1. hospital (building)

Etymology

Borrowed from Late Latin hospitālis, hospitāle (“hospice, shelter, guesthouse”), noun use of Latin hospitālis (“hospitable”). Doublet of the inherited hostal.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central) [us.piˈtal]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic, Valencia) [os.piˈtal]

• Audio (Catalonia):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -al
• Hyphenation: hos‧pi‧tal

Noun

hospital m (plural hospitals)

1. hospital

Further reading

• “hospital” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “hospital”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2024
• “hospital” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “hospital” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

Etymology

Borrowed from English hospital, borrowed from Old French hospital, from Latin hospitālis (“hospitable”), from hospes (“host, guest”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌhospiˈtal/ [ˌhos̪.pɪˈt̪al̪]
• Rhymes: -al
• Hyphenation: hos‧pi‧tal

Noun

hóspitál (Badlit spelling ᜑᜓᜐ᜔ᜉᜒᜆᜎ᜔)

1. a hospital

   Synonyms: ospital, tambalanan

Etymology

Borrowed from Late Latin hospitālis, hospitāle (“hospital, guesthouse”), from the neuter form of Latin hospitālis (“hospitable”), from hospes (“host, guest, stranger”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /hɔspitaːl/, [hɔsb̥iˈtˢæːˀl] or IPA^(key): /hospitaːl/, [hosb̥iˈtˢæːˀl]

Noun

hospital n (singular definite hospitalet, plural indefinite hospitaler)

1. hospital

Pronunciation

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

hospital m (plural hospitaux)

1. Obsolete spelling of hôpital.

Etymology

From Old Galician-Portuguese hospital, espital, spital, borrowed from Late Latin hospitālis, hospitāle (“hospice, shelter, guesthouse”), from Latin hospitālis (“hospitable”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɔspiˈtal/ [ɔs̺.piˈt̪ɑɫ]
• Rhymes: -al
• Hyphenation: hos‧pi‧tal

Noun

hospital m (plural hospitais)

1. hospital

   Foi visitar un enfermo ao hospital. Un hospital privado.

   (please add an English translation of this usage example)

Further reading

• “hospital”, in Dicionario da Real Academia Galega (in Galician), A Coruña: Royal Galician Academy, 2012–2024

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /hos.piˈtal/

Adjective

hospital (comparative plus hospital, superlative le plus hospital)

1. hospitable
   • 1992, Ramiro Castro, “Un septimana in asuncion”, in Panorama in Interlingua, volume 1992, number martio-april:

     Le populo es multo hospital e amabile.

     The people are very hospitable and amiable.

Noun

hospital (plural hospitales)

1. hospital
   • 1959 March, A. Donald Merritt, Bernard F. Fetter, “Toxic Hepatic Necrosis (Hepatitis) due to Isoniazid: Report of a Case with Cirrhosis and Death due to Hemorrhage from Esophageal Varices”, in Annals of Internal Medicine, page 810:

     Esseva constatate plus tarde que illa habeva recipite streptomycina, isoniazido, e acido para-aminosalicylic un anno previemente a un altere hospital.

     It was established later that she had received streptomycin, isoniazid and para-aminosalicylic acid a year earlier at another hospital.