avoid like the plague

English

WOTD – 22 February 2018

Etymology

From the deadliness of the plague and the need to avoid it. Commonly attributed to similar phrases in Latin used by the priest and theologian Saint Jerome (c. 347–420) in his letters, for example:

His igitur quasi quibusdam pestibus exterminatis veniamus ad eos, […]^[1]

Avoiding these [the Remnuoth, a class of monks in Egypt] then as though they were the plague, […]

[N]egotiatorem clericum et ex inope divitem et ex ignobili gloriosum quasi quandem pestem fuge^[2]^[3]

Avoid, as you would the plague, a clergyman who is also a man of business, one who has risen from poverty to wealth, from obscurity to a high position

Pronunciation

(Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /əˈvɔɪd laɪk ðə ˈpleɪɡ/
Audio (General Australian): (file)

Verb

avoid like the plague (third-person singular simple present avoids like the plague, present participle avoiding like the plague, simple past and past participle avoided like the plague)

(simile) To evade or shun, if at all possible.
Cliché should be avoided like the plague.

I’m one of those people who avoids confrontations like the plague.
- 1872 April, “A Ramble in Peru”, in I[saac] W[illiam] Wiley, editor, The Ladies’ Repository: A Monthly Periodical, Devoted to Literature and Religion, volume XXXII (New Series, volume IX), number 16, Cincinnati, Oh.: Hitchcock and Walden; New York, N.Y.: Carlton and Lanahan, →OCLC, page 263, column 2:
  It is the country of countries where the people pass their lives in enjoying the dolce far niente. Hard work is a thing they hate, and carefully avoid like the plague.
- 1925, Musical News and Herald, London: The Musical News Syndicate, →OCLC, page 389, column 1:
  Without posing as experts, we believe that the first essential to the efficient teacher of the young is a sense of direction, and that the danger to avoid like the plague is the patronage of the child. In both these respects, musicians in charge of orchestral concerts for children in this country fail miserably.
- 1992, Marcel Proust, C[harles] K[enneth] Scott Moncrieff, Terence Kilmartin and D[ennis] J[oseph] Enright, transl., “Part Two: Swann in Love”, in In Search of Lost Time: Volume 1: Swann’s Way, New York, N.Y.: The Modern Library, →ISBN, page 267:
  Evening dress was barred, because you were all "good pals" and didn't want to look like the "boring people" who were to be avoided like the plague and only asked to the big evenings, which were given as seldom as possible and then only if it would amuse the painter or make the musician better known.
- 1996, Elizabeth Smither, “The Journal of the Thirty-third Year: September 1975 – August 1976”, in The Journal Box, Auckland: Auckland University Press, →ISBN, page 4:
  A lot of things I'd like to talk about and I'm avoiding like the plague.
- 2003, Daniel J[oseph] Berrigan, “Letter to the Weathermen”, in Joy James, editor, Imprisoned Intellectuals: America’s Political Prisoners Write on Life, Liberation, and Rebellion (Transformative Politics Series), Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, →ISBN, part II (Internationalists and Anti-imperialists), page 245:
  [A] movement has historic meaning only insofar as it puts itself on the side of human dignity and the protection of life, even of the lives most unworthy of such respect. A revolution is interesting insofar as it avoids like the plague the plague it promised to heal.

Translations

to evade or shun

Czech: vyhýbat se něčemu jako moru
Danish: sky som pesten
Finnish: välttää kuin ruttoa
French: fuir comme la peste (fr)
Galician: evitar como a praga
German: wie die Pest meiden; wie der Teufel das Weihwasser meiden (literally “avoid like the devil avoids holy water”)
Greek: αποφεύγω σαν την πανούκλα (apofévgo san tin panoúkla)
Italian: evitare come la peste
Norwegian: sky som pesten
Polish: bać się jak diabeł święconej wody (pl) (literally “fear like the devil fears holy water”)
Portuguese: evitar como uma praga
Romanian: fugi ca dracul de tămâie (literally “run away like devil from frankincense”)
Russian: бежа́ть, как чёрт от ла́дана (bežátʹ, kak čort ot ládana, literally “run away like devil from frankincense”), обходи́ть за версту́ (obxodítʹ za verstú)
Spanish: evitar como la peste
Swedish: sky som pesten
Ukrainian: утікати, як чорт від ладану (utikaty, jak čort vid ladanu)

References

^ Jerome, F[rederick] A[dam] Wright, transl. (1933) “Letter XXII: To Eustochium: The Virgin’s Profession. Written A.D. 384”, in Select Letters of St. Jerome: With an English Translation (Loeb Classical Library; 262), London: William Heinemann Ltd.; New York, N.Y.: G. P. Putnam's Sons, →OCLC, pages 136–137.
^ Jerome, F[rederick] A[dam] Wright, transl. (1933) “Letter LII: To Nepotian: A Clergyman’s Duties”, in Select Letters of St. Jerome: With an English Translation (Loeb Classical Library; 262), London: William Heinemann Ltd.; New York, N.Y.: G. P. Putnam's Sons, →OCLC, pages 200–201
^ Christine Ammer (2013) “avoid like the plague”, in American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms, second edition, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, →ISBN, page 24, column 1.

[1] Jerome, F[rederick] A[dam] Wright, transl. (1933) “Letter XXII: To Eustochium: The Virgin’s Profession. Written A.D. 384”, in Select Letters of St. Jerome: With an English Translation (Loeb Classical Library; 262), London: William Heinemann Ltd.; New York, N.Y.: G. P. Putnam's Sons, →OCLC, pages 136–137.

[2] Jerome, F[rederick] A[dam] Wright, transl. (1933) “Letter LII: To Nepotian: A Clergyman’s Duties”, in Select Letters of St. Jerome: With an English Translation (Loeb Classical Library; 262), London: William Heinemann Ltd.; New York, N.Y.: G. P. Putnam's Sons, →OCLC, pages 200–201

[3] Christine Ammer (2013) “avoid like the plague”, in American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms, second edition, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, →ISBN, page 24, column 1.

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