physician, n.
(fɪˈzɪʃən)
Forms: α. 3–5 fisicien, 4–5 -ian(e, 4 fiscician, -en, fyciscien, 5 fis-, fic-, fys-, -isian, -issyan, -isyen, -esyen, 5–6 fysician, visicion; β. 4–5 fesician(e, 5 -isyan, (-en), -sessian, 6 -ycien, -ysyan, 5 phesicyen, 6–7 -ycion, -icion; γ. 4–6 phisicien(e, 5 -ycien, 5– 7 -ician, 6 -icyon, 6–7 -itian, (-on), -icion, 7 phizitian, 4–5 physicyen, 5 -icien, 5–6 -icion, 6 -ycyen, (phycyssyon), 6–7 physitian, -ycyan, (-on), 6– physician.
[ME. fisicien, a. OF. fisicien (Wace 12th c.), f. L. physic-a, F. physique: see physic and -ician.]
† 1. A student of natural science or of physics.
| a 1400–50 Alexander 4363 Ne foloȝe we na ficesyens, ne philisophour scolis, As sophistri & slik thing, to sott with þe pepill. 1610 Willet Hexapla Dan. 30 Naturall and humane dreames, the interpretation whereof belongeth vnto physicians and philosophers. [1833 J. Martineau Misc. (1852) 6 An analysis of Dr. Priestley's character as a theologian, a physicien, a metaphysician.] |
2. One who practises the healing art, including medicine and surgery.
| a 1225 Ancr. R. 370 Auh, monie ancren,..þet schulden one lecnen hore soule mid heorte bireousunge & flesshes pinunge, uorwurðeð fisiciens & licomes leches. 1297 R. Glouc. (Rolls) 1552 His fisicians he clupede & suor is oþ anon Bote hii made him mid childe he wolde hom sle echon. c 1380 Wyclif Serm. Sel. Wks. I. 60 Man may spende al þat he haþ aboute oþir fisicians. 1393 Langl. P. Pl. C. xxiii. 176 A fisician with a forrede hod. 1484 Caxton Fables of æsop iii. ii, I am a leche, and with al a good phesycyen. 1526 Tindale Luke iv. 23 Visicion heale thy silfe. 1540 Act 32 Hen. VIII, c. 40 Forasmuche as the science of phisicke dothe comprehend..the knowledge of surgery as a speciall membre and parte of the same, therefore be it enacted that anny of the said company or felawiship of Phisitions..may..exercise the said science of Phisick in all and every his membres and partes. 1542 Udall Erasm. Apoph. 278 b, The physicians dooe not fall to cuttyng, except all other meanes and wayes afore proved. 1605 Shakes. Macb. v. i. 82 More needs she the Diuine, then the Physitian. 1758 Johnson Idler No. 17 ¶7 The anatomical novice..styles himself physician, prepares himself by familiar cruelty..to extend his arts of torture..which he has hitherto tried upon cats and dogs. 1809 Kendall Trav. III. lxxii. 128 Physician is the title of all medical practitioners in the United States. 1875 Jowett Plato (ed. 2) III. 28 Physicians to cure the disorders of which luxury is the source. |
b. One legally qualified to practise the healing art as above;
esp. as distinguished from one qualified as a surgeon only.
In the United Kingdom, every medical practitioner is now required to have a qualification as Physician and also as Surgeon; so that a general practitioner usually describes himself as ‘Physician and Surgeon’. The use of ‘Physician’ or ‘Surgeon’ alone usually implies that the person so styled is in practice a specialist in that branch. So especially with the designation ‘Consulting Physician’.
| c 1400 Lanfranc's Cirurg. 298 O lord, whi is it so greet difference bitwixe a cirurgian & a phisician. 1508 Dunbar Lament for Makaris 42 In medicyne the most practicianis, Lechis, surrigianis & phisicianis. 1548 Udall Erasm. Par. Luke Pref. 9 The physicians of the bodyes haue practicioners and poticaries that dooe ministre their art vnder them. 1612 Woodall Surg. Mate Pref. (1639) B j, The more learned sort are justly stiled by the title of Physicians, and the more experienced sort are called Chirurgions or Surgeons. a 1654 Selden Table-T. (Arb.) 27 Your President of the Colledge of Phisitians..himself is no more than a Doctor of Physick. 1707 Chamberlayne St. Eng. iii. 550 Physicians in Ordinary to her Majesty's Person..Apothecaries..Chirurgeons. 1813 J. Thomson Lect. Inflam. Introd. 15 It is from the separation produced by these two decrees [issued by Pope Boniface the Sixth, and Clement the Fifth, at Avignon], that we ought, I conceive, to date the true origin of the distinction between physician and surgeon, such as it has existed in modern times; a distinction unknown in the practice of the ancients. 1872 Geo. Eliot Middlem. xviii, To obscure the limit between his own rank as a general practitioner, and that of the physicians, who, in the interest of the profession, felt bound to maintain its various grades. 1895 W. Munk Life Sir H. Halford 135 The appointment of physician-extraordinary to the king. |
c. Proverbs.
| 1546 J. Heywood Prov. ii. vii. (1867) 67 Feed by measure, and defie the physicion. 1606 Holland Sueton., Tiberius lxviii. Annot., Whereupon might arise our English proverbe, A foole or a physition. 1622 Malynes Anc. Law-Merch. 254 We see the Prouerbe to be true, That the vnknowne disease putteth out the Physitians eye. 1721 [see fool n.1 1 d]. |
3. transf. and
fig. A healer; one who cures moral, spiritual, or political maladies or infirmities.
| c 1400 Mandeville (Roxb.) xiv. 61 Efterwardes he was a phisiciene of saules. 1548 Udall Erasm. Par. Luke Pref. 8 b, Woordes and talke is the physician of a mynde beeyng diseased and sicke. 1687 Norris Hymn, ‘Long have I viewed’ ii, I'll trust my great Physician's skill. 1805 T. S. Surr Winter in Lond. (1806) III. 262 Time must be her physician. 1868 Lynch Rivulet cxl. vi, That thorny cares may yield sweet fruits, And comforts be physicians. |
4. Comb., as
physician-accoucheur,
physician-author,
physician-founder;
† physician finger, the third or ring-finger;
= leech-finger:
cf. finger 1.
| 1623 tr. Favine's Theat. Hon. i. v. 48 Rings of gold are worne by noble persons on the medicinall finger of the left hand called by the Latines Digitus medicus... Aulus Gellius,..declareth, that a small and subtile arterie..proceedeth from the heart, to beate on this Physition finger. 1828 D. le Marchant Rep. Claims to Barony of Gardner 71, I have been physician-accoucheur since 1817. 1901 Daily Chron. 6 Dec. 4/4 The regulations which the physician-founder drew up. |
Hence
phyˈsician v., trans. (
a) to make into a physician; (
b) to put under the care of a physician;
phyˈsicianary a., of or pertaining to a physician;
phyˈsiciancy, the office or position of physician;
phyˈsicianed a., qualified or licensed to act as a physician;
phyˈsicianer dial. = physician 2;
phyˈsicianess, a female physician: also
fig.;
phyˈsicianless a., without a physician;
phyˈsicianly a., befitting a physician;
phyˈsicianship = physiciancy; also the personality of a physician.
| 1839 G. Wilson Let. in Life (1860) iv. 205 The mystic medicating cap has not yet *physicianed me. 1896 D. Sladen in Dominion Illustr. Christmas No., The travellers bestormed were straight put to bed and physicianed. |
| 1889 J. K. Jerome Three Men i, He..has a somewhat family-*physicianary way of putting things. |
| 1881 Times 13 Jan. 11/3 The *Physiciancy to the Queen in Ireland. 1891 N. Moore in Dict. Nat. Biog. XXV. 94/2 His assistant discharged the duties of the physiciancy till his formal election as physician..on..14 Oct. 1609. |
| 1758 H. Walpole Lett. to Mann 10 Feb., Dr. Lucas, a *physicianed apothecary. |
| 1815 M. Pilkington Celebrity I. 78 *Physicioners were sent for. 1821 Scott Kenilw. xi, A man of much skill and little substance, who practised the trade of a physicianer. 1836–48 B. D. Walsh Aristoph. Clouds i. iv, Brave Thurian prophets, physicianers rare. |
| 1662 J. Chandler Van Helmont's Oriat. 171 If nature the *Physitianesse of her self, can overcome diseases by her own goodnesse. 1786 H. Walpole Let. to H. More 9 Feb., I might send for you as my physicianess. |
| 1888 Talmage in Voice (N.Y.) 6 Sept., He died *physicianless. |
| 1888 J. Clifford in Contemp. Rev. Apr. 503 Real knowledge of man and of men,..is indescribably rich in *physicianly force. |
| 1732 Fielding Mock Doctor viii, I shall bind his *physicianship over to his good behaviour. 1879 Cassell's Techn. Educ. IV. 251/2 A promise of succeeding on the first vacancy to the physicianship in ordinary. 1888 T. Watts in Athenæum 17 Mar. 340/2 Latham..was..elected to the physicianship of the St. George's and St. James's Dispensary. |
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physician-assisted suicide n. orig. U.S. suicide carried out with the assistance of a physician (whose role is typically to provide a lethal dose of a drug at the explicit, voluntary request of a mentally competent patient);
cf. assisted suicide n. at
assisted adj. Additions 2.
| 1987 Los Angeles Times 10 Apr. v. 1/1 The intensifying discussion over a narrowly specialized aspect of euthanasia—a practice called ‘*physician-assisted suicide’. 1994 J. M. Hoefler & B. E. Kamoie Deathright vi. 148 The panoply of activism forces currently at work in the nation seem to indicate that physician-assisted suicide will be a legal option in a growing number of states in the not-too-distant future. 1996 Radiologic Technol. (Nexis) 67 280 With the ethical dilemmas presented by physician-assisted suicide, patient advocates have developed a list of three criteria, all of which must be met before a physician even contemplates helping a patient commit suicide. 2001 Brit. Med. Jrnl. (Electronic ed.) 9 June 1376 Besides the vagaries of politics, there is something deeper that makes widespread adoption of euthanasia or physician assisted suicide unlikely and even counterproductive. |