Other forms: outpatients
An outpatient is somebody treated at a hospital without staying the night. An outpatient appointment, seen as an outpatient, the outpatient clinic.
The word describes the arrangement rather than the seriousness, since a great deal of major treatment is now done this way. Outpatients is also the name of the department itself in British hospitals.
1nounoutpatientSomebody treated at a hospital without staying the night.
“The operation is simple, so you'll be treated as an outpatient and can go home the same day.”
outpatient is a patient.
Proto-Indo-European
*peh₁- — to hate, hurt
Latin
patiens
Old French
pacient
Middle French
patient
Middle English
pacient
English
patient
English, today
outpatient
Built from
From out- + patient. patient comes from Middle English pacient, from Middle French patient, from Old French pacient, from Latin patiens, present participle of patior (“to suffer, endure”), from Proto-Indo-European peh₁- (“to hate, hurt”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA