inmate

From inn +‎ -mate, or from in- +‎ -mate.

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /ˈɪn.meɪt/

• Audio (US):

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inmate (plural inmates)

1. A person confined to an institution such as a prison (as a convict) or hospital (as a patient).
2. A person who shares a residence (such as a hotel guest, a lodger, or a student living on campus), or other place.
   • 1852 July, Herman Melville, “Book XVI. First Night of Their Arrival in the City.”, in Pierre: Or, The Ambiguities, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC, section I, pages 312–313:

     [T]he inmates of the coach, by numerous hard, painful joltings, and ponderous, dragging trundlings, are suddenly made sensible of some great change in the character of the road.

3. (uncommon) Synonym of passenger, a person held or riding within a vehicle.
   • 1916 July, Henry Yule & al., "Padre Maestro Fray Seb. Manrique in Bengal (1628–Sept. 11, 1629)", Bengal Past & Present, Vol. XIII, No. 25, p. 32:

     P. della Valle writes in the same strain: "And these two, the palankins and the andors [a kind of doli] also differ from one another, for in the andor the cane which sustains it is, as it is in the reti, straight; whereas in the palankin, for the greater convenience of the inmate, and to give more room for raising his head, the cane is arched upwards like this, _∩_..."

Perhaps around 1970, television journalists began to use the word as a euphemism for prisoner, and this has become the primary, if not only, definition among younger generations. When speaking of people receiving medical services, patient may be preferred instead.

• Etamin, Tamien, Tieman, etamin, inmeat, taimen, tamine