a. and sb. [ad. L. valētūdināri-us, f. valētūdin-, valētūdo VALETUDE. So It., Sp., Pg. valetudinario, F. valétudinaire.]
A. adj. 1. Not in robust or vigorous health; more or less weakly, infirm, or delicate; invalid:
a. Of the body, etc.
1581. Mulcaster, Posit., xxx. (1887), 110. Either it is sickly,… or it is healthy,… or it is valetudinarie, neither pure sicke nor perfit whole.
1619. Donne, Lett., Wks. 1839, VI. 374. I carry an infirm and Valetudinary body.
1692. Boyle, Hist. Air, 230. Oxford … I have known to be very disagreeable to some moist splenetick and valetudinary bodies.
1836. Fraser’s Mag., XIV. 705. His puny and valetudinary frame would not permit him.
fig. 1712. Steele, Spect., No. 300, ¶ 3. This valetudinary Friendship, subject to so many Heats and Colds.
b. Of persons. (In later use freq. implying anxious attention to the state of one’s own health.)
1584. Cogan, Haven Health, cxcvii. 161. For they [students] be commonly valetudinary, that is sickely.
1646. R. Baillie, Anabaptism (1647), Pref. Very small changes of the heaven and air are able to vex much a crazy and valetudinary person.
1692. Boyle, Hist. Air, 242. Sick and valetudinary Persons used to be sent thither.
1733. Cheyne, Eng. Malady, Pref. (1734), p. viii. A gross, full, high Diet, is [improper] for a poor, thin, low, valetudinary Creature.
1779. Johnson, L. P., Pope, Wks. IV. 91. All the unpleasing and unsocial qualities of a valetudinary man.
1808. Scott, in Lockhart (1837), I. i. 19. Though valetudinary, he lived to be nearly ninety.
1844. N. P. Willis, Lady Jane, I. 44. The men being old and valetudinary.
absol. 1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., IV. xiii. 230. Preventive we call that [physic] which … preventeth sicknesse in the healthy, or the recourse thereof in the valetudinary.
1652. Gaule, Magastrom., 139. Experience of all places, and ages tell us, that the more valetudinary, have commonly been the more vertuous.
1741. Compl. Fam.-Piece, I. i. 2. The Tender therefore, and Valetudinary, ought cautiously to avoid all Occasions of catching Cold.
1782. Med. Comm., I. 11, note. The old and valetudinary, suffered most severely.
1823. J. Badcock, Dom. Amusem., 165. The valetudinary, consumptive, and physic-taking, earliest fall victims of the ship’s motion.
2. Of conditions, etc.: Characterized by weak or feeble health.
1620. Venner, Via Recta, viii. 163. Such as are naturally infirme, and of a valetudinary state of body.
1684. trans. Bonet’s Merc. Compit., XV. 530. No Cough nor any signs of a Valetudinary disposition of the Lungs do appear.
1701. C. Wolley, Jrnl. New York (1860), 26. A person seemingly of a weakly Stamen and a valetudinary Constitution.
a. 1776. R. James, Diss. Fevers (1778), 44. Mr. Collyer … has by that means been brought from the most valetudinary state, to one of great health and vigour.
1830. Scott, Demonol., ix. 331. Apparently a man of melancholic and valetudinary habits.
1876. L. Stephen, Hist. Eng. Th. 18th C., II. 386. The last thirty-six years of his long life was passed in valetudinary retirement.
B. sb. † 1. An infirmary or hospital. Obs.
After med.L. valetudinarium.
1623. Cockeram, I. Valetudinarie, an Hospitall.
1677. W. Hughes, Man of Sin, III. ii. 45. There lay the poor man, till being found, he was carried into the Valetudinary.
2. = VALETUDINARIAN sb.
1785. Lounger (1787), I. 200. Dr. Doddipoll was a valetudinary like myself.
1787. Mme. D’Arblay, Diary, 15 Aug. General Grenville, a silent, reserved valetudinary, went under the same convoy.
1851. E. FitzGerald, Euphranor, 46. It is better to die well ever so young than to grow up a valetudinary and a poltroon.
1860. Macm. Mag., II. 36. The painters who have shown him [Christ] as a delicate valetudinary.
