infest

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English infesten, also infessen,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Middle French infester,^[3][5][6] recorded in Anglo-Norman from the early 13th century,^[7] and directly borrowed from Latin īnfestō (“to attack, trouble”),^[2][6][8][9] from īnfestus (“hostile, unsafe”).^{[6][9][5][10]} The Latin adjective is of debated origin.^[9][3][11] Etymonline and Barnhart gloss it as originally "inexorable";^[9][3] Etymonline divides it into in- (“not”) and -festus, perhaps "able to be seized", the second part of Latin manifestus,^[9] which de Vaan also sees in it,^[11] reconstructing Proto-Italic *en-fristo- (“rushing in”), with a question mark.^[11] Barnhart and the American Heritage Dictionary derive it from Proto-Indo-European *gwhedh- (“to ask, pray”), with the cognate Old Irish guidiu (“I pray”),^[3][4] while Merriam-Webster refers to the family of dare,^[5] a connection with *dhers- (“to be bold”) that de Vaan finds not very compelling.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

To give pain or distress: probably before 1425, in the Middle English translation of Chauliac's Grande Chirurgie, of bleeding arteries, where a second version has noyen, to annoy.^[2][3] Dictionary.com dates the word to 1375–1425, while the OED's first quotation, for "to harass", is from 1533.^[12][6]

Semantic evolution

The word begins in the Latin sense of hostile attack: to attack, harass or trouble persistently, said of people, animals and hurtful things from 1533 in Bellenden's Livy.^[6][3] From 1542 to 1752 it was also said of diseases and errors, sometimes through confusion with infect.^[6] Johnson (1755) still defines it as "to harrass; to disturb; to plague".^[13] The modern meaning grew out of attacks on places: to trouble a country with hostile raids, and to haunt it in large numbers for destruction or plunder, recorded by the OED and Barnhart from 1602, in Warner.^[6][3] Etymonline dates "swarm over" to about 1600,^[9] Hoad to the 17th century,^[8] and the Oxford Dictionary of English to the mid 16th century.^[14][15] Today the original sense is archaic or rare,^[5][6][15] and the verb is used mostly of insects, vermin and parasites.^[16][17][5]

Timeline

• probably before 1425 – to give pain, distress, hurt.^[2][3]
• 1533 – to attack or harass persistently.^[6][3]
• 1542 – of diseases and errors, to trouble (obsolete by 1752).^[6]
• 1602 – to trouble a place with hostile attacks; to visit it in large numbers to destroy or plunder.^[6][3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To overrun or be present in a place in large and troublesome numbers: Rats infested the old warehouse.^{[5][17][12][16]}
2. Of a parasite, to live in or on a host: Ticks had infested the stray dog.^[5][17]
3. (archaic) To attack or harass persistently.^{[5][12][6][15]}

Word family

• infestation
• infester
• infestant
• disinfest
• reinfest

Related words

• manifest
• infect

Usage notes

The OED records separately an obsolete verb infest, to fasten or fix in something, before 1340 in Rolle's Psalter, formed from the prefix in- and fest, fast, after Latin infigō.^[6] It also lists an adjective infest, hostile, from īnfestus, used from 1513 to 1641.^[6]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
8. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
11. ^ a b c d de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ a b c Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
14. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
15. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
16. ^ a b Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
17. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins