noun
asylum
An old-fashioned term for a psychiatric institution.
The old document refers to the hospital as an asylum.
Etymology
Greek asylon named a refuge or protected place. Institutions for people with mental illness were called asylums through the idea of providing shelter and care, producing this older institutional use.
More examples
- The historian studied conditions in nineteenth-century asylums.
- The former asylum was converted into a museum.
- She explained why asylum is now an outdated institutional term.
Forms
asylum · asylums
Similar words
- psychiatric hospital
- The current neutral term.