lazar house

lazar house

English

Etymology

From lazar +‎ house.

Noun

lazar house (plural lazar houses)

1. (archaic) Synonym of leprosery: A building used to house lepers, usually in permanent quarantine from the rest of society.
   • 15th c., William of Worcester, “The Rolle of Sencte Bartholemeweis Priorie” cited in William Barrett, The History and Antiquities of the City of Bristol, 1789, p. 429,

     These bee alle the bookes ynne the ache Camberre & of the reste of the Lazar house bee cellis & beddis for the Lazars, beeynge manie in number […]

   • 1667, John Milton, “Book XI”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […], OCLC 228722708; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, OCLC 230729554, lines 477-482:

     […] Immediately a place
     Before his eyes appeard, sad, noysom, dark,
     A Lazar-house it seemd, wherein were laid
     Numbers of all diseas’d, all maladies
     Of gastly Spasm, or racking torture, qualmes
     Of heart-sick Agonie, all feavorous kinds […]

   • 1965, Richard Howard (translator), Madness and Civilization by Michel Foucault (1961), New York: Random House, Chapter 1, “Stultifera Navis”,

     The lazar house of Nancy, which was among the largest in Europe, had only four inmates during the regency of Marie de Médicis.

2. (archaic, figuratively) A hospital or lazaret for quarantining patients suffering highly infectious diseases.
   • 1853, Elizabeth Gaskell, Ruth, Chapter 33,

     A portion of the Infirmary of the town was added to that already set apart for a fever-ward; the smitten were carried thither at once, whenever it was possible, in order to prevent the spread of infection; and on that lazar-house was concentrated all the medical skill and force of the place.

Alternative forms

• lazar-house, lazarhouse

Related terms

• lazaret, lazaretto