pest

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See also: Pest, pěst, and пест

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/
    • (file)
  • (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

Translations

Anagrams

Danish

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

Noun

pest c (uncountable, singular definite pesten)

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

Dutch

Pronunciation

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

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:
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

References

Norwegian Nynorsk

Norwegian Nynorsk Wikipedia has an article on:
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

References

Serbo-Croatian

Etymology

Inherited from Proto-Slavic *pęstь.

Pronunciation

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

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.
Feminine, i-stem, long mixed accent
nom. sing. pést
gen. sing. pestí
singular dual plural
nominative
(imenovȃlnik)
pést pestí pestí
genitive
(rodȋlnik)
pestí pestí pestí
dative
(dajȃlnik)
pêsti pestéma pestém
accusative
(tožȋlnik)
pést pestí pestí
locative
(mẹ̑stnik)
pêsti pestéh pestéh
instrumental
(orọ̑dnik)
pestjó pestéma pestmí

Derived terms

Swedish

Etymology

Ultimately from Latin pestis.

Noun

pest c

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

Derived terms

References

Tocharian B

Particle

pest

  1. a perfectivizing particle used with verbs