Nosocomial
adj ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 Of an infection or its cause: arising from the environment of, or treatment in, a hospital. formal, not-comparable
"It is a febrile disease accompanied by symptoms quite peculiar to it. […] There is a peculiar conformity between it and nosocomial fever, or typhus of prisons, described by Pringle [i.e., Sir John Pringle, 1st Baronet], a disease of a complicated nature, and named by Pinal adynamic & ataxic fever. We shall soon see that both may originate from analogous causes, and that a contagion not being sufficiently strong for developing the true nosocomial fever among healthy persons, may, nevertheless, produce hospital gangrene."
- 2 Of, relating to, or happening in a hospital. formal, not-comparable, uncommon
"In 1822 he [Étienne Serres] left the Hôtel Dieu for La Pitié, where he remained until he had attained the legal limit of age which compels the nosocomial physicians and surgeons of Paris to retire from office. At this point terminates the strictly medical part of M. Serres' career, during which he gained great distinction as a nosocomial physician, and published several works of value."
- 1 taking place or originating in a hospital wordnet
Synonyms
All synonymsExample
More examples"It is a febrile disease accompanied by symptoms quite peculiar to it. […] There is a peculiar conformity between it and nosocomial fever, or typhus of prisons, described by Pringle [i.e., Sir John Pringle, 1st Baronet], a disease of a complicated nature, and named by Pinal adynamic & ataxic fever. We shall soon see that both may originate from analogous causes, and that a contagion not being sufficiently strong for developing the true nosocomial fever among healthy persons, may, nevertheless, produce hospital gangrene."
Etymology
Learned borrowing from Late Latin nosocomīum (“hospital, infirmary”) + English -al (suffix meaning ‘of or pertaining to’ forming adjectives). Nosocomīum is borrowed from Ancient Greek νοσοκομεῖον (nosokomeîon, “hospital, infirmary”), from νοσοκομέω (nosokoméō, “to tend the sick”) + -εῖον (-eîon, suffix forming nouns denoting places); νοσοκομέω (nosokoméō) is from νόσος (nósos, “disease, illness, sickness”) (further etymology uncertain) + κομέω (koméō, “to take care of, look after, tend”) (from Proto-Indo-European *kem(H)- (“to be tired; to exert oneself”)).
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.