Origin Story
There is a reason patient carries two meanings at once — "a sick person" and "enduring without complaint." The Latin verb patior means "to suffer, to endure," and its present participle is patiens, "one who bears suffering." Think about it: a sick person is someone enduring pain, and a patient person is someone enduring hardship. Both senses branched from the single root of "enduring." That is why, in English, a patient is a patient and being patient is being patient.
The same patior ("to endure, to undergo") also gives us passion (suffering, intense feeling), passive (acted upon), and compassion ("suffering with," sympathy). All rest on the idea of undergoing and enduring. Even calling the suffering of Christ "the Passion" comes from this same root.
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Online Etymology Dictionarypatient (adj.): mid-14c., "enduring without complaint," from Old French pacient, from Latin patientem (nominative patiens), present participle of pati "to suffer, endure"; noun sense "sick person under treatment" from late 14c.
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Merriam-Webster Dictionarypatient: from Latin patient-, patiens, from present participle of pati to suffer
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Oxford English Dictionarypatient: from Latin patient- "suffering," from the verb pati
Word Evolution
Words from the Same Root
Memory Hook
Remember that both the patient and patience come from "to endure" (pati). It belongs to the same family as passion and compassion.
""To suffer an illness and to master one's heart both came down, in the end, to enduring.""
