Other forms: hospitals
A hospital is the building where doctors and nurses treat sick people. Go to hospital, in hospital, the local hospital.
British English says in hospital and to hospital with no article; American English says in the hospital. Hospital ward, hospital bed and hospital appointment are the standard compounds. Note that hospital, hotel, hostel, hospitality and host are all the same Latin word — a hospital was originally a place of shelter for travellers and the poor, and the medical narrowing came later.
1nounhospitalA building where doctors and nurses treat sick people.
“The ambulance rushed her to hospital after the car accident.”
hospital is a place of treatment.
Latin hospitalis means relating to a guest, from hospes, a guest or host. The word covered any place of shelter, which is why hospital and hotel are the same word arriving by different routes.
Middle English
hospital
English, today
hospital
Built from
From Middle English hospital. From Middle English hospital, hospitall, from Old French hospital (Modern French hôpital), from Latin hospitālis (“hospice, shelter, guesthouse”), from noun use of Latin hospitālis (“hospitable”), from hospes (“host, guest”). a doublet of hotel and hostel. Displaced native lechehous, from lǣċehūs.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA