referraln.
/rᵻˈfəːrəl/, /rᵻˈfəːrl̩/, U.S. /rəˈfərəl/, /riˈfərəl/ rare before 20th cent.
1. The action or an act of referring something or to something; a reference; spec. the passing on to a third party of personal information concerning another.
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > information > action of informing > [noun] > referral of information
referrala1790
a1790 J. H. Beattie Ess. & Fragments (1794) iii. 295 Instead of reference, preference, commitment..say referral, preferral..and the transferral of property, instead of the transferring of property.
1867 N. Amer. Rev. Oct. 530 The over-ready referral to a Sanskrit root.
1943 Sun (Baltimore) 27 Nov. 6/3 The publication by Senator Butler of his report and his referral of it to the Truman Committee.
1969 Ithaca (New York) Jrnl. 27 Nov. 32/2 The name of the woman..was apparently given secretly to the..company by one of her friends, who was paid for the ‘referral’ with a vaporizer or other small appliance.
1981 Times 10 Mar. 18/6 The senior management of these businesses comes out well from these referrals.
2006 M. W. Jackson Harmonious Triads vii. 187 Chronometrical markings might ensure a beat based on the universal standard of time, replacing the constant referral to vague terms, such as andante, allegro, and presto.
2. Chiefly Medicine.
a. The referring of an individual (or his or her case) to an expert, specialist, etc., for consideration; spec. the directing of a patient, usually by a general practitioner, to a consultant or institution for specialist treatment. Frequently attributive. Cf. refer v. 5.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > attention and judgement > judgement or decision > advice > [noun] > referral
submissionc1405
reference1579
referment1586
referrer1650
remit1650
submittal1850
referral1920
the world > health and disease > healing > art or science of medicine > practice of healing art > [noun] > referral
referral1920
1920 J. C. Faries Three Yrs. Work Handicapped Men 58 The field work department strives..to facilitate referrals of cases likely to need the services of the Institute.
1933 Economica 41 327 No rules have been laid down by the Clinic as to the age of children to be referred, problems for referral, etc.
1944 Amer. Jrnl. Surg. 65 67 (caption) Patient had an unsuccessful curettage prior to her referral.
1955 D. M. Deed in C. Morris Social Case-Work in Great Brit. (ed. 2) iii. 70 At the time of referral [to a family caseworker] the child was in a temporary hostel.
1972 Where May–June 136/3 He can go to his family doctor who will either examine him and take the necessary tests to establish the diagnosis before giving treatment, or will send him to the nearest hospital clinic with a letter of referral.
1991 R. Rendell Kissing Gunner's Daughter (1992) xiv. 177 All inmates came to Royal Oak on referral, usually the recommendation of a prison Senior Medical Officer.
2007 Health Policy 80 18/2 Policy objectives for the future focus on waiting for diagnostic tests and times from referral to treatment.
b. A person who has been referred to a particular specialist, institution, employer, etc.
ΚΠ
1956 Amer. Sociol. Rev. 21 319/2 Twenty-four of the thirty-three referrals were committed to correctional or mental institutions as juveniles following Clinic contact.
1963 Chicago Tribune 6 Oct. (Mag. section) 60/2 She was a referral from another city.
1994 Midwest Home & Design Summer 44/2 If none is satisfactory, interview three more referrals.
2001 B. Broady In this Block there lives Slag 132 I always asked out-of-town referrals if they'd come across a social worker called Hilary.
3. Medicine. The attribution of pain to a specific site, esp. one distant from its real origin; the transmission of pain from the site of origin to or into another site.
ΚΠ
1938 J. O. McCall Fund. of Dentistry in Med. & Public Health vii. 92 When the pulp becomes infected..,it..gives rise to certain characteristic symptoms. These are briefly: 1. Sharp, lancinating, intermittent pain... Referral of pain (frequently) to another tooth on the same side of the center line [etc.].
1971 Progr. in Cardiovascular Dis. 13 508 There may be overflow, or spread, at these spinal cord segments causing the phenomenon of somatic referral of pain to parts of the body whose sensory supply enters at the same spinal cord segment.
2001 S. Mense et al. Muscle Pain iv. 84/2 Pain referral between seemingly normal muscles can be elicited in a relatively high proportion of healthy subjects.
Compounds
General attributive, esp. in sense 2a.
ΚΠ
1920 A. Y. Reed & W. Woelpper Junior Wage Earners v. 145 Who is the referral clerk? The counselor or a second person who specializes in that phase of employment service?
1966 Lancet 24 Dec. 1403/1 The referral system, whereby consultants see patients only at the request of the family doctor, came into being at the end of the 19th century.
1968 World Med. 26 Nov. 35/1 The referral diagnosis was Addison's disease.
1978 Times 2 Nov. 14/2 They [sc. the Samaritans] can, and do, act as a medical or psychiatric referral agency.
1984 Jrnl. Substance Abuse Treatm. 2 i. 14/1 The main referral questions revolved around issues of drug-induced atypical organic brain syndrome versus general low intellectual ability.
1989 V. R. Godwin in M. G. Field Success &Crisis in National Health Syst. ix. 269 Systematic linkages and referral patterns between primary, secondary, and tertiary level services.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2009; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.a1790