The gradual recovery of health and strength after an illness or medical procedure; the period of time it takes to feel well again.
From Latin 'convalescentia,' derived from 'convalescere' (to grow strong). The word became established in English medical vocabulary by the 1600s to describe the intermediate stage between acute illness and full recovery.
Doctors now recognize that convalescence involves not just physical healing but psychological and social recovery too—a Victorian understanding we'd kind of forgotten until COVID showed us why isolation during recovery is actually harmful.
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