insane asylum
13
9.9
- noun
- /ɪnˈseɪn əˈsaɪləm/
- Slur
:
hospital psiquiátrico
- The stigma surrounding mental health has led to the term insane asylum becoming outdated and often offensive.
And we also have seen, as the DHS has confirmed what Trump said, which is that places like Venezuela are emptying out their prisons and their insane asylums.
- And we also have seen, as the DHS has confirmed what Trump said, which is that places like Venezuela are emptying out their prisons and their insane asylums.
- Cantor, yeah, Didn't that Leopold Kronecker, Yes, who ended up driving him basically into an insane asylum where he died.
- Sarah Paulson, the cool cousin who got out, who comes back to let everyone know that there is an exit out of this, you know, this this insane asylum.
Examples
-
And Olmsted did what he could to ameliorate the suffering of those confined in insane asylums, at least giving them something lovely to look at in Hartford, Buffalo, and the famous McLean Asylum outside Boston.
Academic text (2011) -
Many historical novels depict characters being sent to an insane asylum due to their unconventional behavior.
-
Is that an insane asylum next door?
Fiction book (1997) -
A lot of people go to insane asylums.
-
She died in an insane asylum.
-
Now, I find out this place was built over some burnt-out old insane asylum.
-
In 1936, he made a visit to an insane asylum in Rouen, which turned out to be a shocking experience.
Academic text (2009) -
Shortly after its publication, Maupassant himself was confined to an insane asylum.
Blog text (11) -
After examination by five court-appointed psychiatrists, Schrank was committed to an insane asylum in Wisconsin, where he died in 1943.
Blog text (29) -
The documentary revealed the harsh realities of life in an insane asylum during the early 20th century.
Synonyms
125
5.6
A hospital for people with mental illness or intellectual disability who need long-term care
64
7.5
A hospital where people with mental health problems get care
42
3.6
A hospital that cares for people who have serious problems with their mind
38
2.8
A hospital where doctors help people with problems of the mind
26
8.0
A very noisy, chaotic place often used to describe a mental hospital or busy shop
19
3.0
A hospital that treats people with mental health problems
1
9.9
A hospital where people with mental illness lived and got treatment in the past
1
6.1
A hospital for people who cannot look after themselves because of mental illness
How Respectful
1
3.2
19
3.0
- Archaic
38
2.8
- Slur
13
9.9
- Offensive
26
8.0
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly and transparently derived from combining 'insane' (mentally disordered) with 'asylum' (an institution for care): the adjective+noun composition yields the institutional/medical sense without requiring idiomatic knowledge. While 'asylum' can also mean 'refuge' in other contexts, the modifier 'insane' clearly signals the mental‑health institution sense, a compositional pattern that is cross‑linguistically common and readily inferable by learners who know both words.
Etymology
Insane asylum uses insane for people with serious mental illness and asylum in its older sense of a shelter, so it once meant a place to care for and protect them. Because many of these places later became hospitals where people were kept and treated poorly, the phrase now sounds old and offensive, and people say 'psychiatric hospital' or 'mental health facility' instead.