Abstract
In the professional nursing today there is an unquestionably wish from the patient to be cared for. But what is the meaning content of ‘care for’? The aim of this study was to unveil and discover the meaning of this concept. The method was based on Koort's method for concept analysis with a hermeneutical approach. The study contains an etymological and semantic analysis of linguistic data from 14 dictionaries, interpreted in the light of caring science. The results of the etymological and semantic analysis reveal the following meaning content: To listen to the voice of the heart, To be responsible and provide care for the human being and To behave as nothing had happened, with a caring intension. The last mentioned dimension should be regarded as uncaring if the caring intention has not its roots in the ethos of caring.
