[The origins of the Polish medical and nursing care vocabulary until 1838]

The vocabulary concerning the patient care dates back to the times of early Christianity and presents the Latin etymology. Though meager limited to a few words, the lexical range that with the course of historical development formed the terminology still provides a basic notional framework valid till the present day in many European languages. The author depicts the way the Polish onomatology developed since the early Middle Ages till 1838 (the year the term the nursing of patients was used for the first time). She searches for borrowings, relations, analogies present in other European languages, mainly in Romance, German and English. She uses in her research monastic sources (monastery rules), church materials, hospital post-visit files, hospital regulations and instructions, guides and dictionaries. Urbanek focuses on the conditions and processes that affect the development of the Polish nomenclature. She attempts to define the range of the content and functions of the terms: medical care and nursing of patients.