pest

English

Etymology

In the 16th century in the sense of "pestilence" and specifically bubonic plague from Middle French peste (“pestilence”) (whence French peste). The other meanings are recorded soon after. Ultimately from Latin pestis.

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /pɛst/

  • Audio (Southern England)

    (file)

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛst

Noun

pest (plural pests)

1. (now rare) A pestilence, i.e. a deadly epidemic, a deadly plague.
   • 2020 March 24, Qing Zhu, Zhang Ming, “Amid Coronavirus Pandemic, China Faces Plague of Locusts”, in Minghui‎:

     From the perspective of traditional Chinese culture, pests and famines are reflections of the current administration’s lack of moral values and deviation from divine will. The head of the administration (the emperor in the past) would then issue an edict to sincerely repent and correct his wrongdoings.

2. Any destructive insect that attacks crops or livestock; an agricultural pest.
3. An annoying person, a nuisance.
4. An animal regarded as a nuisance, destructive, or a parasite, vermin.
5. An invasive weed.

Synonyms

• (creature): bug

Derived terms

Related terms

• pester
• pesting
• pesthole
• pesthouse
• pesticidal, pesticide
• pestiferous
• pestilence, pestilent, pestilential

Translations

Anagrams

• EPTs, ESTP, PETs, STEP, Sept, Sept., TPEs, Teps, pets, sept, sept-, spet, step, step-

Danish

Etymology

From French peste, from Latin pestis (“disease, plague, pest, destruction”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pɛst/,

Noun

pest c (uncountable, singular definite pesten)

1. (pathology) plague
2. (figuratively) pestilence

Dutch

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛst

Noun

pest f (uncountable)

1. A plague, pest, pestilence.
2. A specific bovine plague
3. An obnoxious person

Derived terms

Descendants

• Negerhollands: pest
• → Indonesian: pes
• → Japanese: ペスト (pesuto)
• → Papiamentu: peste

Verb

pest

1. inflection of pesten:
   1. first/second/third-person singular present indicative
   2. imperative

References

• M. J. Koenen & J. Endepols, Verklarend Handwoordenboek der Nederlandse Taal (tevens Vreemde-woordentolk), Groningen, Wolters-Noordhoff, 1969 (26th edition)

Northern Kurdish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pɛst/

Noun

pest f (Arabic spelling پەست)

1. pressure, oppression

References

• Chyet, Michael L. (2003) “pest”, in Kurdish–English Dictionary‎, with selected etymologies by Martin Schwartz, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, page 442

Norwegian Bokmål

Norwegian Wikipedia has an article on:

pest

Wikipedia ^no

Etymology

From Latin pestis.

Noun

pest f or m (definite singular pesta or pesten, indefinite plural pester, definite plural pestene)

1. a plague

   sky (noe/noen) som pesten - avoid (something/someone) like the plague

   velge mellom pest og kolera - choose the lesser of two evils

Derived terms

• byllepest
• forpeste
• pestepidemi

References

• “pest” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Norwegian Nynorsk Wikipedia has an article on:

pest

Wikipedia ⁿⁿ

Etymology

From Latin pestis.

Noun

pest m (definite singular pesten, indefinite plural pestar, definite plural pestane)
pest f (definite singular pesta, indefinite plural pester, definite plural pestene)

1. a plague

   sky (noko/nokon) som pesten - avoid (something/someone) like the plague

   velje mellom pest og kolera - choose the lesser of two evils

Derived terms

• byllepest
• forpeste
• harepest
• musepest
• pestepidemi
• Pesta (“humanoid personification of the plague”)
• tinnpest

References

• “pest” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Serbo-Croatian

Etymology

Inherited from Proto-Slavic *pęstь.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pêːst/

Noun

pȇst f (Cyrillic spelling пе̑ст)

1. (regional, literary) fist

Declension

Slovene

Etymology

From Proto-Slavic *pęstь. Cognate with Serbo-Croatian пест, pest, Slovak päsť, Russian пясть (pjastʹ, “middle part of the hand”) and запя́стье (zapjástʹje), dialectal Bulgarian (Western dialects) пестник (pestnik), песник (pesnik), пестница (pestnica). Compare Ancient Greek πυγμή (pugmḗ), English fist, German Faust.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /péːst/

Noun

pẹ̑st f

1. (anatomy) fist

Inflection

The diacritics used in this section of the entry are non-tonal. If you are a native tonal speaker, please help by adding the tonal marks.

Derived terms

• pésten

Swedish

Etymology

Ultimately from Latin pestis.

Noun

pest c

1. A plague
2. A pest; something deeply annoying

Derived terms

• blodpest
• böldpest
• lungpest
• pest och pina
• sky som pesten
• välja mellan pest och kolera

References

• pest in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• pest in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• pest in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)

Tocharian B

Particle

pest

1. a perfectivizing particle used with verbs