Gila in Woodridge, Connecticut, wonders if there’s a connection between the adjective patient, meaning able to withstand delay, pain, or problems, and the noun patient, meaning a person who is sick. Both derive from Latin adjective patientem, describing someone who suffers or tolerates. These words are related to the term passion meaning suffering, as in the Passion of Christ, and passionflower, the name of that odd-looking blossom that is said to symbolize the whips, nails, and other instruments used to torture Jesus. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “”Patient” Noun vs. “Patient” Adjective”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hi, Grant.
Hi, who is this?
This is Gila from Woodbridge, Connecticut.
Hi, Martha.
Hi, Gila.
Thanks for taking my call.
This is great.
Welcome.
What can we do for you?
Well, the other day I was in my doctor’s office, sitting in the waiting room for too long, as we do, and a question just came to me, and here it is. Is there any connection between being patient and being a patient? And I knew you were the two to ask. So, I mean, the spell’s the same, right? And the pronounce the same. But the meanings are completely different.
There is indeed a connection. They both go back to a Latin word that involves suffering.
Oh.
Yeah.
Yeah. And so by the late 14th century, the word patientum in Latin meant a suffering or sick person. And we get the word patient from that.
And those words are also part of a whole family of words that include the word passion.
Like when you talk about the passion of Christ, it has to do with suffering, that kind of passion.
Yeah, like the passion of Christ.
And I don’t know, are you familiar with passion flowers?
No.
Okay, well, it’s a really strange looking flower. I mean, if there were ever a flower that looked like it was put together by a committee, it would be the passion flower. It’s like a sea anemone on land, kind of.
Yeah.
I’ll have to look it up.
Very colorful.
Yeah, with little extra things.
And it gets its name Passion Flower from a story that goes that it represents the passion of Christ. Part of it looks like a crown of thorns. Part of it looks like the nails that were driven into Jesus’s hands.
Yeah.
And so they’re all related to this old Latin word that means suffering. And there’s this notion in a lot of the older usages of enduring. So you’re enduring pain or suffering or you’re enduring a long wait. You’re enduring something.
Muzak and magazines that are out of date.
Yeah, and somebody else’s germs on the armrests.
So in the waiting room, I was suffering from a cold and suffering waiting.
Yeah.
Exactly.
You suffered yourself to wait.
That’s great.
You did.
So there is indeed a connection there.
Excellent.
I will remember that.
Now, this was so much fun.
It was so great to talk to you.
Well, thank you for calling, Gila.
Take care.
Well, if you’re sitting around wondering about a word or phrase, call us 877-929-9673 or send us an email. That address is words@waywordradio.org.
