Definition

Noun: 1. A hospital or isolation facility for people with infectious diseases, especially leprosy: A lazarette is a specialized medical institution designed to quarantine and treat individuals suffering from contagious illnesses, historically most associated with leprosy (Hansen's disease). 2. A storage compartment or area on a ship: In nautical contexts, a lazarette (also spelled lazaret) is a space, often in the stern, used for storing spare parts, sails, or other ship's stores.

Usage Examples

• Noun (Medical Facility):
  • The island once housed a lazarette for leprosy patients, isolating them from the general population.
  • In the 19th century, many ports had a lazarette to quarantine sailors arriving with infectious diseases.
• Noun (Nautical Storage):
  • The crew stored the extra ropes and fenders in the ship's lazarette.
  • He went down into the lazarette to check the emergency supplies.

Advanced Usage

• Historical Context: The term is strongly associated with historical public health measures before modern antibiotics and treatments were available. Its use for a leprosarium is now largely archaic but appears in historical texts.
• "Lazaretto": This is a common variant spelling, especially for the medical facility meaning.

Variants and Related Words

• Lazaretto (noun): A direct synonym and variant spelling for both meanings (hospital or ship's storage).
• Leprosarium (noun): A hospital specifically for the treatment of leprosy; a more modern clinical term for one function of a historical lazarette.
• Quarantine station (noun phrase): A facility for detaining people or animals suspected of carrying a contagious disease.

Synonyms

• Leprosarium (for the medical meaning).
• Pesthouse (archaic term for a hospital for plague victims).
• Sickbay (a ship's hospital, but not specifically for quarantine).
• Locker, storage locker (for the nautical storage meaning).

Related Phrases

• To be quarantined in a lazarette: Describes the historical action of isolating someone in such a facility.
  • Sailors showing symptoms of yellow fever were quarantined in the lazarette.

Noun

1. hospital for persons with infectious diseases (especially leprosy)