lazaretto

PRONUNCIATION: (laz-uh-RET-o)
MEANING:
noun:
1. A medical facility for people with infectious diseases.
2. A building or ship used for quarantine.
3. On a ship, a space between decks used as storage.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Italian lazzaretto, a blend of lazzaro + Nazareto. Lazzaro is the Italian version of the name Lazarus, the name of a beggar covered in sores as described in the New Testament (Luke 16:20). Nazareto was the nickname of a hospital, after Santa Maria di Nazareth, the name of the Church on the island where it was located. Earliest documented use: 1549.
USAGE:
"The Council House was a frame building, away from the rest, that had been built in the old, wilder days as a lazaretto for surly drunks."
Kurt Vonnegut; Player Piano; Charles Scribner's Sons; 1952.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
I never lose sight of the fact that just being is fun. -Katharine Hepburn, an actress who had fun for 96 years (1907-2003)
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LAZYRETTO - a mental hospital for purposeless people who don't know that just being alive is fun.