Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The hygienic evils incident to old, crowded, and carelessly conducted hospitals, especially the liability under such conditions to erysipelas, septicemia, etc. The term was introduced by Sir J. Simpson of Edinburgh in 1869.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Med.) A vitiated condition of the body, due to long confinement in a hospital, or the morbid condition of the atmosphere of a hospital.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun psychology wasting away of infants in long-term institutional care, caused by lack of contact with caregivers
  • noun medicine, dated A vitiated condition of the body, due to long confinement in a hospital, or the morbid condition of the atmosphere of a hospital.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

hospital +‎ -ism

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