Etymologically
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pest

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Pronunciation

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French peste (“epidemic, bubonic plague”),[2][3][4][5][6] from Latin pestis (“plague, pestilence; destruction, bane”),[2][4][3][7] a word of unknown or uncertain origin.[2][3][4][7] The “Shorter Oxford”, Hoad and the “Oxford Dictionary of English” allow a borrowing straight from the Latin noun,[8][9][10] and Barnhart thinks the English form was also influenced by the older pestilence.[3] In French the word meant an epidemic from about 1460 and a troublemaker from about 1475,[2] and Anglo-Norman peste is recorded from the late 13th century for a deadly epidemic.[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

A deadly epidemic disease, especially bubonic plague: 1479, in a Scottish legal record.[2] Merriam-Webster also dates the word to the 15th century,[5] while Etymonline gives the 1550s, in curses such as a pest upon...,[4] and Barnhart 1568.[3]

Semantic evolution

The first pest was the plague itself; patients were sent to the pesthouse, and Merriam-Webster's Book of Word Histories notes that Defoe's Journal of the Plague Year (1722) mentions people moved "to the pesthouse beyond Bunhill fields".[12] The word soon weakened to anything destructive or troublesome: the OED's first example is in G. Douglas's Scots translation of the Aeneid (before 1522),[2] while Barnhart dates the weaker sense to 1609 and Etymonline to about 1600.[3][4] An annoying person is now the most common kind of pest.[12][13] The sense of an insect or other animal that damages crops or livestock is recorded from 1748;[2] the Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins links its appearance to the fading fear of plague.[14] Curses such as a pest on... are found from 1632 in the OED,[2] and in Sussex what the pest! was a mild oath.[15] The French word kept its old sense, so Camus's novel La Peste was translated as The Plague.[12] The verb pest, to annoy or plague, is recorded from before 1729,[2] and was used in Scotland and northern England for "to pester".[15]

Timeline

  • 1479 – a deadly epidemic disease, the plague.[2]
  • before 1522 – a destructive or troublesome person or thing.[2]
  • 1568 – plague, pestilence (Barnhart's first record).[3]
  • 1632 – in curses, a pest on....[2]
  • before 1729 – verb, to annoy, plague.[2]
  • 1748 – an animal, especially an insect, that attacks crops or livestock.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. An annoying person or thing; a nuisance: My little sister is a real pest when I'm studying.[13][5][2]
  2. An insect or other animal, or a weed, that damages crops, livestock or stored goods: pest control.[13][5][2]
  3. (historical) A deadly epidemic disease, especially bubonic plague; pestilence.[2][5][13]

Verb

  1. To annoy or pester.[2][15]

Word family

  • pesty
  • integrated pest management
  • tin pest
  • pester
  • pesthole
  • pesthouse
  • pesticide
  • pestiferous
  • pestilence
  • pestilent
  • pestilential
  • pesky

Usage notes

The Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins notes that pester is not directly connected: it comes from empestrer (“to encumber”), though its English form was influenced by pest.[14] It suggests that pesky may be related to pest, perhaps through pesty.[14]

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  7. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  8. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  9. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  10. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  11. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
  12. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster's Book of Word Histories, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  13. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  14. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  15. ^ a b c Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)