Ilé ìwòsàn — Hospital
Category: Everyday Life
Hospital — literally "house of healing," where the sick go for treatment.
The compound pairs "ilé" (house) with "ìwòsàn" (healing/cure), a pattern Yorùbá uses often to name places by their purpose.
The compound follows a very common Yorùbá word-building pattern: pairing "ilé" (house/building) with a word describing its purpose — the same pattern that produces "ilé ìwé" (school, house of books), among others.
Alongside modern hospitals, many Yorùbá communities also maintain traditional healing practices and herbalist practitioners, so "ilé ìwòsàn" in everyday conversation usually refers specifically to a formal medical facility rather than healing more broadly.
Example: Wọ́n gbé aláìsàn náà lọ sí ilé ìwòsàn. — "They took the sick person to the hospital."
Related words:
- Ilé ìwé — School, built the same way: "house of books"
- Onísègùn — Traditional healer/herbalist