Sickhouse
Origin
From Middle English sykhous, sek hous ("hospital", literally a house for the sick), equivalent to sick + house. Cognate with Dutch ziekenhuis ("hospital"), Danish sygehus ("hospital"), Swedish sjukhus ("hospital"). Compare also German Krankenhaus ("hospital").
Full definition of sickhouse
Noun
sickhouse
(plural sickhouses)- A place where sick or injured people are cared for; a hospital.
- 1830, Frederic William Naylor Bayley, Four years' residence in the West Indies:The sickhouse was a cool, capacious, and convenient building, well adapted to the purpose for which it was used.
- 1993, Robert Jordan, The shadow rising:What was still called the new sickhouse, where people were taken to be tended if their illness was contagious, ...
- 2002, Sharla M. Fett, Working cures:Four months after giving birth to a daughter, Peggy returned to the sickhouse with a "rising breast," ...