pestilence
See also: Pestilence
English
Etymology
From Middle English, from Old French, from Latin pestilentia (“plague”), from pestilens (“infected, unwholesome, noxious”); see pestilent.
Pronunciation
Noun
pestilence (countable and uncountable, plural pestilences)
- Any epidemic disease that is highly contagious, infectious, virulent and devastating.
- 1826, Mary Shelley, The Last Man, part 2, chapter 2
- "Take it, Christian dogsǃ take the palaces, the gardens, the mosques, the abode of our fathers - take plague with them; pestilence is the enemy we fly; if she be your friend, hug her to your bosoms. The curse of Allah is on Stamboul, share ye her fateǃ"
- 1831 July 15, “Of the Blood”, in Western Journal of Health[1], volume 4, number 1, L. B. Lincoln, page 38:
- It was reserved for Christians to torture bread, the staff of life, bread for which children in whole districts wail, bread, the gift of pasture to the poor, bread, for want of which thousands of our fellow beings annually perish by famine; it was reserved for Christians to torture the material of bread by fire, to create a chemical and maddening poison, burning up the brain and brutalizing the soul, and producing evils to humanity, in comparison of which, war, pestilence, and famine, cease to be evils.
- 1949 - Bruce Kiskaddon, George R. Stewart, Earth Abides
- The snowshoe-rabbits build up through the years until they reach a climax when they seem to be everywhere; then with dramatic suddenness their pestilence falls upon them.
- 1826, Mary Shelley, The Last Man, part 2, chapter 2
- (archaic) Anything harmful to morals or public order.
Related terms
Translations
any highly contagious epidemic disease
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Further reading
- “pestilence”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
- “pestilence”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
French
Etymology
From Old French pestilence, borrowed from Latin pestilentia.
Pronunciation
Noun
pestilence f (plural pestilences)
Derived terms
References
- “pestilence”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Old French
Noun
pestilence oblique singular, f (oblique plural pestilences, nominative singular pestilence, nominative plural pestilences)
- pestilence (epidemic disease)
Categories:
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms derived from Old French
- English terms derived from Latin
- English 3-syllable words
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English uncountable nouns
- English countable nouns
- English terms with quotations
- English terms with archaic senses
- en:Epidemiology
- French terms inherited from Old French
- French terms derived from Old French
- French terms borrowed from Latin
- French terms derived from Latin
- French 3-syllable words
- French terms with IPA pronunciation
- French lemmas
- French nouns
- French countable nouns
- French feminine nouns
- French terms with archaic senses
- French literary terms
- Old French lemmas
- Old French nouns
- Old French feminine nouns