From Latin asylum, from Ancient Greek ἄσυλον.

• IPA: /əˈsaɪləm/

asylum (plural asylums)

1. A place of safety or refuge.
   • 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XXVIII, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume II, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC ↗, page 295 ↗:

     All the busy concerns of daily existence were utterly abhorrent to me. I loathed the sound of others' voices—I hated to be mixed up with their petty routine of ordinary cares; here was an asylum offered to me—here I might lay down all the offices of humanity, and dwell beside that grave whose rest was now my only desire.

2. The protection, physical and legal, afforded by such a place (as, for example, for political refugees).
3. (dated) A place of protection or restraint for one or more classes of the disadvantaged, especially the mentally ill.
   • 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter V, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y., London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC ↗:

     Of all the queer collections of humans outside of a crazy asylum, it seemed to me this sanitarium was the cup winner. […] When you're well enough off so's you don't have to fret about anything but your heft or your diseases you begin to get queer, I suppose.

• sanctuary
• shelter

• French: asile
• German: Asyl
• Italian: asilo
• Portuguese: asilo
• Russian: убе́жище
• Spanish: asilo, santuario

• French: asile psychiatrique
• German: psychiatrische Anstalt
• Italian: manicomio
• Portuguese: manicómio (Portugal), manicômio (Brazil), hospício (Brazil)
• Russian: психиатри́ческая лече́бница
• Spanish: manicomio