A person (usually a child) placed under the care and protection of a guardian; also a section of a hospital.
From Old English 'weard,' meaning 'guard' or 'keeper.' The word originally described the person doing the protecting, then shifted to mean the person being protected. The hospital meaning developed as a 'ward' became a supervised section of a building.
The dual meaning reveals fascinating language archaeology—the same word shifted meanings depending on perspective. It's like how 'cook' meant both 'person who cooks' and 'food being cooked' in Middle English, showing how languages recycle words for efficiency.
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