Back to all words

Clinical

3 stages from Greek to English.

Today it means relating to the treatment of patients; coldly efficient

Where does the word "clinical" come from? It comes from Greek klínē, passing through Latin before entering English (1780s).

klínē→clinicus→clinical

Greek · ancient

'bed, couch'; klinikós meant a physician who visits patients in bed

Latin · late antiquity

"bedside doctor"

a bedside physician; also, in the early Church, a person baptised on their sickbed

English · 1780s

"of the bedside; detached"

bedside teaching, pioneered by Herman Boerhaave at Leiden in the early 1700s, spread to Edinburgh and London; 'clinical' for coolly detached dates from the 1900s

Drag to pan · scroll to zoom

Read the full story

Clinical’s story begins in Greek: klínē meant “bed.” 'bed, couch'; klinikós meant a physician who visits patients in bed. By late antiquity, the word had taken hold in Latin as clinicus. A bedside physician; also, in the early Church, a person baptised on their sickbed. It reached English by 1780s as clinical. Bedside teaching, pioneered by Herman Boerhaave at Leiden in the early 1700s, spread to Edinburgh and London; 'clinical' for coolly detached dates from the 1900s. Today, clinical means relating to the treatment of patients; coldly efficient.