lazar house

lazar +‎ house

lazar house (plural lazar houses)

1. (historical) A place to quarantine patients with leprosy or other communicable illnesses.
   • 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 […]

   • 1674, John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book 11, 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 […]

   • 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.

   • 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.

• leprosarium

• lazar
• lazaret

• leprology
• leprosy