English
medical
Medical comes from French médical, from Medieval Latin medicālis, from Latin medicus ‘healing; physician’, from medeor ‘to heal’.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEmedeor‘to heal’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEmedicus‘healing; physician’
- Medieval Latinc. 600–1500medicālis
- Frenchc. 1600–presentmédical
- Englishearliest quotation 1884medical
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEmedeor‘to heal’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEmedicus‘healing; physician’
- Medieval Latinc. 600–1500medicālis
- Frenchc. 1600–presentmédical
- Englishearliest quotation 1884medical
Earliest quotation: 1884, Robert Louis Stevenson: “We medicals have a better way than that. When…”
The story
Replaced Old English lǣċe (‘doctor (physician)’), which is cognate with Icelandic læknir (‘doctor’).
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *med- ‘to measure, give advice, heal’
must, model, modern, mode, mood, mud, module, mold, meditation, blackmail, modus, modal, modulate, mote, mete, moulder, modifiable, 33 more
through Proto-Italic *medos ‘measure’
commodity, mould, modification, modulation, molding, modulus, modulo, modicum, 15 more
through Latin medeor ‘to heal, cure, remedy, be good for or against…’
through Latin medicus ‘healing, curative, medical’
through Medieval Latin medicālis
Today it means
adj Of or pertaining to the practice of medicine.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Latin medeor / medical