“Patient” Noun vs. “Patient” Adjective

Gila in Woodridge, Connecticut, wonders if there’s a connection between the adjective patient, meaning able to withstand delay, pain, or problems, and the noun patient, meaning a person who is sick. Both derive from Latin adjective patientem, describing someone who suffers or tolerates. These words are related to the term passion meaning suffering, as in the Passion of Christ, and passionflower, the name of that odd-looking blossom that is said to symbolize the whips, nails, and other instruments used to torture Jesus. This is part of a complete episode.