spital en · NOUN
Etymology
From Middle English spitel, an aphetic form, from Medieval Latin hospitāle.
Meanings
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(historical) A charitable house to receive and care for sick people, later distinguished from a hospital as being especially for those of a low class or meagre financial means.
Put up a supplication to him in the name of a thousand orphans, an hospital, a spital, a prison, as he goes by, they cry out to him for aid, ride on, surdo narras, he cares not […]
1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition II, section 1, member 3:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| spitals | Number=Plur | lexicographic | |
| spittle | alternative | lexicographic |