pestifer Latin · revision 31698

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=compound|attested=81–43 BC, Cicero|origins=la pestis}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * Classical: [ˈpɛs.tɪ.fɛr]^(Wiktionary)

+ * Ecclesiastical: [ˈpɛs.ti.fer]^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''pestifer''' (feminine pestifera, neuter pestiferum); first/second-declension adjective (nominative masculine singular in -er)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[af|la|pestis|-fer|t1=plague, destruction|t2=bearing]].^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary) The origin of [[m|la|pestis]] is unclear: the old derivation from ⟨*per-sitis⟩ “very thirsty” is unconvincing, and a comparison with an Avestan illness name ⟨kapastiš⟩ is possible.^(de Vaan 2008)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Köbler's first source is Cicero,^(Köbler 2010) who speaks of “pestilent citizens deserving punishment”.^(OLD 2012)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ It means bringing death or destruction, as Livy's men struck by a deadly star;^(OLD 2012) Festus explains a ''pestiferum fulgur'' as lightning that signifies death or exile.^(OLD 2012) It is used of what is harmful to health, as Livy's pestilential smell and Virgil's deadly jaws of the underworld, and in a wider sense of persons and things that are pernicious.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879) Celsus has the rare form ''pestiferus''.^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+

+ Church Latin glosses it “pestilential, destructive, noxious”.^(Stelten 1995)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 81–43 BC – Cicero of pernicious citizens.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 70–19 BC – Virgil of the deadly jaws of the underworld.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 59 BC–17 AD – Livy of a deadly star and a pestilential smell.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Köbler 2010)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Adjective===

+ # Bringing death or destruction, [[m|en|deadly]].^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Wiktionary)

+ # Harmful to health, [[m|en|pestilential]].^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Wiktionary)

+ # [[m|en|pernicious|alt=Pernicious]], baleful, [[m|en|noxious]].^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[pestis]]

+ * [[fero|alt=ferō]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}