recreational medicine

5.5

Medical care that treats injuries and health problems from sports or outdoor activities

noun
/ˌrɛkrɪˈeɪʃənl ˈmɛdɪsɪn/

Specialized

: medicina recreativa

The clinic specializes in recreational medicine, offering treatments for hiking-related problems and outdoor accidents.

Examples

After retiring, she developed an interest in recreational medicine, helping athletes recover from sports injuries.
Some doctors argue that recreational medicine can encourage healthier lifestyles through preventive care.
Many athletes benefit from recreational medicine.
The field of recreational medicine is growing rapidly.
The clinic specializes in recreational medicine, offering treatments for hiking-related problems and outdoor accidents.
Some doctors argue that recreational medicine can encourage healthier lifestyles through preventive care.
After retiring, she developed an interest in recreational medicine, helping athletes recover from sports injuries.

Surface Forms

recreational medicine singular

recreational medicines plural

Morphology

recreational + medicine

The meaning is a compositional noun phrase: 'recreational' (relating to leisure activities) modifies 'medicine' (the medical field), yielding medicine related to leisure or sports. A B1 learner who knows both constituent words can reliably infer this restricted meaning because it follows ordinary English adjective + noun composition and mirrors patterns found in other languages.

Etymology

Recreational medicine comes from the picture of doctors who treat people hurt while doing hobbies or sports in their free time. Here recreational means 'for fun' and medicine means 'health care', so it now means care for injuries from leisure activities and ways to prevent them.