physician
nouncommon in dialogue
- United Kingdom//fɪˈzɪʃn̩//
- United States//fəˈzɪʃən//
A practitioner of physic, i.e. a specialist in internal medicine, especially as opposed to a surgeon; a practitioner who treats with medication rather than with surgery.
noun
- 1
A practitioner of physic, i.e. a specialist in internal medicine, especially as opposed to a surgeon; a practitioner who treats with medication rather than with surgery.
His forefathers had been, as a rule, professional men—physicians and lawyers; his grandfather died under the walls of Chapultepec Castle while twisting a tourniquet for a cursing dragoon; an uncle remained indefinitely at Malvern Hill;[…].
The ancient Greek physician Hippocrates promoted wine for various purposes, including reducing fevers and dressing wounds.
- 2
A medical doctor trained in human medicine.
The doctor had to go to London for a physician to take charge of his practice[…].
Etymology
From Middle English fisicien, from Old French fisicïen (“physician”) (modern French physicien (“physicist”)), from fisique (“art of healing”), from Latin physica (“natural science”), from Ancient Greek φυσική ἐπιστήμη (phusikḗ epistḗmē, “knowledge of nature”), from φυσικός (phusikós, “pertaining to nature”). Displaced native Middle English læche, leche, archaic English leech (“physician”). Morphologically physic + -ian.
Forms
- plural
- physicians
physician · A practitioner of physic, i.e. a specialist in internal medicine, especially as opposed to a surgeon; a practitioner who treats with medication…
physicist · A person whose occupation specializes in the science of…physics · The branch of science concerned with the study of the…pi · The sixteenth letter of the Classical and Modern Greek…