pest

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/

  • 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^[1]:

     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

• antipest
• building and pest
• chicken pest
• empest
• fowl pest
• garden pest
• impest
• integrated pest management
• nagana pest
• nonpest
• pest control
• pest controller
• pestful
• pestify
• pestlike
• Pestminster
• pestology
• pestproof
• pesty
• serial pest
• sex pest
• tin pest

Related terms

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

Translations

plague

• Bulgarian: чума (bg) f (čuma)
• Catalan: pesta (ca) f, plaga (ca) f
• Cornish: pla m, plag m
• Dutch: pest (nl), plaag (nl)
• French: peste (fr)
• German: Seuche (de) f, Pest (de) f
• Greek: πανούκλα (el) f (panoúkla), μάστιγα (el) f (mástiga), πληγή (el) f (pligí), λοιμός (el) m (loimós)
• Indonesian: pes (id)
• Irish: plá f
• Macedonian: чу́ма (mk) f (čúma)
• Ottoman Turkish: طاعون (taʼun), خسته‌لق (hastalık)
• Polish: plaga (pl) f, zaraza (pl) f, epidemia (pl) f
• Portuguese: peste (pt) f
• Romanian: pestă (ro) f
• Russian: чума́ (ru) f (čumá), мор (ru) m (mor)
• Scottish Gaelic: plàigh f
• Spanish: peste (es) f, pestilencia (es) f, epidemia (es) f
• Swedish: pest (sv) c
• Tagalog: angol, taping (animal)
• Walloon: pesse (wa)

destructive insect — see also vermin

• Armenian: վնասատու (hy) (vnasatu), վնասատու կենդանի (vnasatu kendani), ուտիճ (hy) (utič)
• Belarusian: шко́днік m (škódnik)
• Bulgarian: вредител (bg) m (vreditel)
• Cornish: pla m
• Danish: skadedyr (da)
• Dutch: pest (nl), plaag (nl)
• Estonian: kahjur (et)
• Finnish: tuhoeläin (fi)
• French: peste (fr) f, nuisible (fr) m
• Georgian: მავნებელი (mavnebeli)
• German: Schädling (de) m
• Icelandic: meindýr n
• Italian: parassita (it) m
• Macedonian: штеточина f (štetočina)
• Maori: orotā, kīrearea
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: skadedyr n

  Nynorsk: skadedyr n

• Persian: آفت (fa) (āfat), آگفت (fa) (āgaft)
• Polish: szkodnik (pl) m, insekt (pl) m
• Portuguese: peste (pt) f
• Russian: вреди́тель (ru) m (vredítelʹ)
• Sardinian: errebiu m
• Scottish Gaelic: plàigh f
• Serbo-Croatian: štetòčina (sh) f, štȅtnīk (sh) m
• Spanish: peste (es) f, pestilencia (es) f
• Swedish: skadedjur (sv) n
• Turkish: haşere (tr)
• Ukrainian: шкідни́к m (škidnýk)
• Volapük: minimil (vo), (animal) dämabanim, (diminutive) dämabanimil, (insect) dämabanäsäk, (plant) dämabaplan

annoying person

• Bulgarian: досадник m (dosadnik)
• Cornish: mab an pla m, myrgh an pla f
• Danish: plage (da), plageånd, pestilens
• Dutch: lastpak (nl) n
• Finnish: maanvaiva, kiusankappale (fi), kiusanhenki
• French: peste (fr) f, moustique (fr) m
• German: Nervensäge (de) f, Quälgeist (de) m
• Greek: ζιζάνιο (el) n (zizánio)
• Irish: crá croí m
• Maori: orotā, nanakia, pōrearea
• Navajo: doo yildinii
• Plautdietsch: Onjenieech n, Ploag f
• Polish: utrapieniec (pl) m
• Portuguese: peste (pt) m or f
• Russian: вреди́тель (ru) m (vredítelʹ), парази́т (ru) m (parazít)
• Scottish Gaelic: plàigh f, meaban m
• Serbo-Croatian: dosadnjáković m, dosàdnjāk (sh) m
• Spanish: moscardón (es) m

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/, [pʰɛsd̥]

Noun

pest c (uncountable, singular definite pesten)

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

Declension

Declension of pest

common gender	singular
	indefinite	definite
nominative	pest	pesten
genitive	pests	pestens

Dutch

Pronunciation

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛst

Noun

pest f (uncountable, no diminutive)

1. a plague, pest, pestilence
2. a specific bovine plague
3. an obnoxious person

Derived terms

• als de pest
• builenpest
• koeienpest
• pestbacil
• pestblaar
• pestbos
• pestbuil
• pesten
• pestepidemie
• pester
• pesterij
• pestgeval
• pestgezwel
• pesthaard
• pesthekel
• pesthol
• pesthuis
• pestilent
• pestkop
• pestlijder
• pestlucht
• pestvent
• pestvogel
• pestziek
• varkenspest
• vogelpest

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) [Dutch dictionary in Dutch]

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^[2], with selected etymologies by Martin Schwartz, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, page 442

Norwegian Bokmål

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

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
• Pesta (“humanoid personification of the plague”)
• pestepidemi
• tinnpest

References

• “pest” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Serbo-Croatian

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Balto-Slavic *penkstis?

Proto-Slavic *pęstь

Serbo-Croatian pest

Inherited from Proto-Slavic *pęstь.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pêːst/

Noun

pȇst f (Cyrillic spelling пе̑ст)

1. (regional, literary) fist

Declension

Declension of pest

	singular	plural
nominative	pȇst	pesti
genitive	pesti	péstī
dative	pesti	pestima
accusative	pest	pesti
vocative	pesti	pesti
locative	pesti	pestima
instrumental	pesti/pešću	pestima

Slovene

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Balto-Slavic *penkstis?

Proto-Slavic *pęstь

Slovene pest

Inherited from Proto-Slavic *pęstь.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /péːst/

Noun

pẹ̑st f

1. (anatomy) fist

Declension

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

• 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