Pestilentia
/ˌpɛstɪˈlɛnʃə/noun
A plague, pestilence, or deadly contagious disease.
Did you know?In Latin, pestilentia was the kind of word used for a destructive epidemic, and its root also gave English words like pest and pestilence, turning “annoyance” into a shadow of catastrophe.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*peis-
“to hurt, to damage, to plague”
Latin
Latin
pestis
“a plague, pestilence; a destructive disease or calamity”
Latin
Latin
pestilentia
“a plague, pestilence; destructive epidemic disease”
Old French
OF
pestilence
“plague, contagious disease”
Middle English
English
pestilence
“a plague or deadly epidemic”
Modern English
English
pestilence
“a deadly infectious disease or plague”
Explore more surprising origins