infesto

Forms

īnfestō (present infinitive īnfestāre, perfect active īnfestāvī, supine īnfestātum); first conjugation^[1] A deponent form īnfestor, īnfestārī is also found.^[2]

Etymology

It is from Latin īnfestus (“hostile, unsafe”) + -ō.^[3][4][2][1] De Vaan finds the origin of īnfestus unclear.^[5] He tentatively reconstructs Proto-Italic *en-fristo- (“rushing in”), which would fit if festīnō (“to hurry”) and cōnfestim (“immediately”) contain a noun meaning “hurry”; the older explanation as “implacable”, from Proto-Indo-European *n̥-gʷʰedʰ-to-, he finds further off in meaning and hard to reconcile with the sound changes.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The OLD's earliest quotations are from the Bellum Alexandrinum, of attacks on fortifications, and in Ovid, of the waters that Scylla makes unsafe.^[3][6] Lewis and Short call it mostly post-Augustan.^[4]

Semantic evolution

It means to vex by repeated attacks, harass, molest, and is also used of diseases and pests, as Celsus of ulcers troubling the stomach, and of Fortune, as Seneca has it.^[3][4] Of places it means to make them unsafe by repeated attacks: Ovid has Scylla and Charybdis infesting the two sides of the strait, Pliny the Elder islands infested by sea monsters, and Velleius a sea made unsafe by piracy.^[3][4] Pliny also uses it of disturbing the sleep of fish, and Celsus of a treatment that only delays death and meanwhile impairs life.^[3] In Ecclesiastical Latin it means to attack, molest, disturb, harass.^[7] Through Old French infester it became English infest in the late 15th century.^[8]

Timeline

• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it of Scylla making the waters unsafe.^[3][4][6]
• c. 20 BC–30 AD – Velleius uses it of a sea infested by piracy.^[4][6]
• 14–37 AD – Celsus uses it of diseases and of impairing life.^[3][6]
• late 15th century – English borrows infest through French.^[8]

Meanings

Verb

1. To harass by repeated attacks, molest, trouble; also of diseases, pests and Fortune.^[3][4]
2. To make a place unsafe by repeated attacks, to infest; to disturb rest or peace.^[3][4]
3. To have a bad effect on, damage, impair.^[3]

Word family

• īnfestātiō
• īnfestātor

Related words

• īnfestē
• īnfestus
• English infest

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com