Physicians

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A person trained and licensed to practice medicine and treat illnesses
2. An individual qualified to diagnose and manage health conditions
3. A licensed healthcare professional who provides medical care

Etymology: The plural "physicians" is the form of "physician," which traces back to the Greek phrase "phusikē epistēmē," meaning "knowledge of nature." Ancient Greek "phusikos" meant "pertaining to nature," and the Latin "physica" carried the sense of natural science into Europe. Healing was once considered a branch of that study of the natural world, so a healer of the body was in effect a student of nature. Over time the medical sense narrowed. Old French developed "fisique," meaning the art of healing, and Middle English borrowed the resulting "fisicien," which took over the role of a native English word, "leche," that had meant a healer. That older word survives today only as "leech," an archaic term for a physician. The English word itself is a combination of "physic," meaning medicine, and the suffix "-ian," which marks a person associated with a particular field. The same Greek root also gave us "physics," a reminder that the modern sciences of matter and medicine share an ancient ancestry in the study of nature.

Synonyms: doctors, medics, healers, practitioners, clinicians