Etymology
Of uncertain origin. Equated with a supposed second element of Younger Avestan 𐬐𐬀𐬞𐬀𐬯𐬙𐬌𐬱 (kapastiš), the name of an illness,[1][2] which beside ka-pastiš has its morphological boundaries also rendered kap-astiš and been identified with Persian کبست (kabast, “colocynth; deadly poison”), with seemingly the suffix as Persian دهمست (dahmast, “laurel”) if not اسپست (aspest, “lucerne”).
Noun
pestis f (genitive pestis); third declension
- disease, plague, pestilence, infection
- Synonyms: morbus, aegritūdō, malum, valētūdō, labor, infirmitas, incommodum
- Antonyms: salūs, valētūdō
29 BCE – 19 BCE,
Virgil,
Aeneid 4.90:
- Quam simul ac tālī persēnsit peste tenērī [...].
- And as soon as [Juno] sensed that [Dido was now] gripped by such a plague [of passion] [...].
(Erotic passion here is likened to a deadly disease.)
c. 84 BCE – 54 BCE,
Catullus,
Carmina 76.20:
- Ēripite hanc pestem perniciemque mihi!
- And rid me from this pernicious plague!
- a pest
- destruction, ruin, death
- Synonyms: perniciēs, interitus, ruīna, cruciātus, exitium, vulnus, cāsus, clādēs, perditiō, excidiō, excidium, lētum, dēstrūctiō
Declension
Third-declension noun (i-stem).
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References
- “pestis”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- “pestis”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
- pestis in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
- Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book, London: Macmillan and Co.
- the plague breaks out in the city: pestilentia (not pestis) in urbem (populum) invadit
- to bring mishap, ruin on a person: calamitatem, pestem inferre alicui
- to compass, devise a man's overthrow, ruin: pestem alicui (in aliquem) machinari
Bartholomae, Christian (1904) Altiranisches Wörterbuch [Old Iranian Dictionary] (in German), Strassburg: K. J. Trübner, column 436
De Vaan, Michiel (2008) Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 463