asylum

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
asylum/əˈsʌɪləm/

▶noun

• 1 the protection granted by a state to someone who has left their native country as a political refugee.

  ■ shelter or protection from danger.

• 2 dated an institution for the care of the mentally ill.

– origin ME: via L. from Gk asulon ‘refuge’, from asulos ‘inviolable’, from a- ‘without’ + sulon ‘right of seizure’.