Words: fomes
PRONUNCIATION:
(FOH-meez)
plural fomites (FOM-i-teez, FOH-mi-teez)
MEANING:
noun: An object (for example, clothing or bedding) capable of absorbing and transmitting infectious organisms from one person to another.
NOTES:
The word is usually used in its plural form fomites, which has led to the back-formation of a new singular form fomite. Another example of a word coined in a similar way is pea (from pease, which was erroneously believed to be a plural).
ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin fomes (kindling wood), from fovere (to warm). Earliest documented use: 1658.
USAGE:
“The sitters didn’t catch the virus at all. The cuddlers did, and so did the touchers, pointing up the importance of direct contact with secretions, but especially of fomites — objects and surfaces with infectious viral particles still on them.”
Perri Klass; When to Keep a Child Home?; The New York Times; Feb 9, 2009.
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