Other forms: treatments
Treatment is the care given to cure an illness, or the way somebody is dealt with. Medical treatment, cruel treatment, a course of treatment.
The two senses share the idea of handling: treating a patient and treating a person badly are the same verb. In film, a treatment is a prose outline of a story before the script. Note treat; and that the Latin means to handle, from tractare.
1nountreatmentThe care given to cure an illness.
“She's receiving treatment for a heart problem.”
2noundealtThe way somebody is dealt with.
“The prisoners complained about their treatment by the guards.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
treatment is a handling.
Treat plus -ment, from Latin tractare, to handle, from trahere, to draw. Tractor and contract come from the same drawing.
Latin
tracto — to pull", "to manage
Old French
tretier
Anglo-Norman
treter
Middle English
treten
English
treat
English, today
treatment
Built from
From treat + ment. Compare French traitement. treat comes from Middle English treten, from Anglo-Norman treter, Old French tretier, traiter, from Latin tracto (“to pull", "to manage”), from the past participle stem of traho (“to draw", "to pull”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA