bolesnica

Bolesnica is a feminine noun used in several South Slavic languages, most notably Croatian, Serbian, and Bosnian. It denotes a female patient or a sick person. The masculine counterpart is bolesnik, which means a male patient. Both terms share the same root bol-, related to pain or illness, with gendered suffixes forming the corresponding nouns.

In use, bolesnica describes an individual who is ill or who is receiving medical care. For example, in a sentence you might encounter: Ona je bolesnica, meaning she is a patient or she is ill. The word is primarily a descriptive, somewhat informal term for a person who is unwell, and it is distinct from terms that name a hospital facility.

A common source of confusion is the related word bolnica, which in these languages means a hospital. While bolesnica refers to a person, bolnica refers to the building or institution where medical care is provided. In medical or formal contexts, alternatives such as bolesnik/bolesnica or pacijent may be used, depending on regional preferences.

Overall, bolesnica functions as a gendered noun describing a female patient, reflecting shared Slavic roots for illness-related terms and illustrating how similar words can shift in meaning between person and place.