fomes

English

Etymology

From Latin fōmes (“touchwood, tinder”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈfoʊ.miːz/

Noun

fomes (plural fomites)

1. (medicine, obsolete) Any substance supposed to be capable of absorbing, retaining, and transporting contagious or infectious germs.

   Woollen clothes are said to be active fomites.

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “fomes”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)

Anagrams

• MEFOs

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Latin

Etymology

From Proto-Indo-European *dʰegʷʰ-. Related to Latin foveō (“I keep warm”), compare Latin fōmentum (“compress, poultice; kindling; mitigation”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈfoː.mes/, [ˈfoːmɛs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈfo.mes/, [ˈfɔːmes]

Noun

fōmes f (genitive fōmitis); third declension

1. tinder, kindling

Declension

Third-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	fōmes	fōmitēs
Genitive	fōmitis	fōmitum
Dative	fōmitī	fōmitibus
Accusative	fōmitem	fōmitēs
Ablative	fōmite	fōmitibus
Vocative	fōmes	fōmitēs

References

• “fomes”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “fomes”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• fomes in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.

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Middle English

Noun

fomes

1. plural of fome

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Portuguese

Noun

fomes

1. (deprecated template usage) Plural of noun fome.

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Spanish

Adjective

fomes

1. plural of fome