- hospital
- 1242, "shelter for the needy," from O.Fr. hospital "hostel," from L.L. hospitale "guest-house, inn," neut. of L. adj. hospitalis "of a guest or host," from hospes (gen. hospitis); see host (1). Later "charitable institution to house and maintain the needy" (1418); sense of "institution for sick people" is first recorded 1549. Hospitalize is from 1901, "Freq(uently) commented on as an unhappy formation" [OED].