Etymologically
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pestis

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈpɛs.tɪs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈpɛs.tis][1]

Forms

pestis f (genitive pestis); third declension[1]

Etymology

The origin is uncertain.[2][3][4][5] De Vaan rejects Walde's ⟨*per-sitis⟩ “great thirst” and mentions Bartholomae's analysis of Avestan kapastiš, the name of an illness, as a pejorative prefix with ⟨*pesti-⟩ “illness”.[2][1] Lewis & Short suggested ⟨*perd-tis⟩, from perdō (“to destroy”);[6] the TLL thinks it may be formed with an old suffix ⟨-ti-⟩ like vestis and vītis, but finds nothing certain.[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler first records it in Ennius,[4] who has quī alterī exitium parat, eum scīre oportet sibi parātam pestem, “he who plots another's ruin should know that destruction is prepared for himself”, and hōs pestis necuit, “plague killed these”.[3]

Semantic evolution

Pestis is physical destruction or death, and a plague or epidemic (Plautus: pestis tē tenet, “you have the plague”), also unhealthy air or weather.[3][6] It is applied to anything that brings death, a person, an animal or a force of nature, then to the overthrow of persons and states, “ruin”, and to whatever ruins them, “a curse, a bane”: Cicero calls Antony's return pestis patriae.[3][1]

Döderlein contrasts luēs, disease from impure matter, contāgium, a contagious one, and pestilentia, a disease reigning in the land.[8] English pest (1550s) comes from it through French.[5]

Timeline

  • 204–169 BC – Ennius: hōs pestis necuit.[3][4]
  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus: pestis tē tenet.[3][4]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero: pestis patriae.[3][4]
  • 1550s – English pest.[5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Destruction, death.[3][1]
  2. A plague, pestilence, epidemic.[3][6][1]
  3. A thing or person that brings death or destruction.[3]
  4. Ruin, disaster, overthrow.[3][1]
  5. A curse, bane, a pest.[3][1][5]

Word family

  • pestibilis
  • pestifer
  • pestilēns
  • pestilentus
  • pestilis
  • pestilentia
  • English pest

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ 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
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  5. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  6. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  8. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper