infestus

Esperanto

Verb

infestus

1. conditional of infesti

Latin

Etymology

Uncertain. Possibilities include:

1. Cognate with manifestus (“caught in the act”) by assuming a precedent sense “caught by hand”, and derived from a tentative -festus (“grabbing, attacking”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *dʰers- (“to be bold”).
2. Cognate with festīnō (“to hasten, accelerate”), cōnfestim (“immediately”) by assuming a precedent sense “rushing in”, from Proto-Italic *festis (“hurry”), which Schrijver derives from a root *bʰris-. This makes a connection with manifestus difficult.
3. From in- (“un-”) +‎ Proto-Italic *festus (“asked for”), itself from Proto-Indo-European *gʷʰedʰ-to-s, from *gʷʰedʰ- (“to request, ask for, pray”). Phonologically this assumes the ending -tus being analogically restored after *TT had shifted to *ss in Italic, as might be the case with fūstis.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /inˈfes.tus/, [ĩːˈfɛs̠t̪ʊs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /inˈfes.tus/, [iɱˈfɛst̪us]
• It is not entirely certain whether the vowel in the second syllable was short or long. Spanish enhiesto (assumed to be a descendant, with a change in sense) shows development of -ie- from -ĕ- (though this does not exclude the possibility of an original -ē- that underwent later shortening or analogical replacement, as in Spanish fiesta from Latin fēstum). Bennett 1907 cites "infésti" from C.I.L. v. 2627 as inscriptional evidence for a long vowel, and compares the length to that of e in manifē̆stus (but the latter is also uncertain).

Adjective

īnfestus (feminine īnfesta, neuter īnfestum, comparative īnfestior, superlative īnfestissimus); first/second-declension adjective

1. hostile (to a person, cause etc.), antagonistic

   Synonyms: inimīcus, īnfēnsus, inīquus, hostīlis, aliēnus, adversus, āversus

   Antonyms: amīcus, benevolus, aequus

   1. marked by strife, troubled
2. (entertaining or foreboding violent actions) aggressive, warlike; raised, threatening, poised to strike
3. (of things) harmful, troublesome [with dative]
   • 27 BCE – 25 BCE, Titus Livius, Ab Urbe Condita I.15:

     si Romana arma omnibus infesta finitimis essent

     if the Roman army should be dangerous for all his neighbours

4. (of places) dangerous, unsafe; infested [with ablative ‘with’]; adverse
5. exposed to danger, threatened, insecure

   Synonyms: inermis, intūtus, nūdus

   Antonyms: mūnītus, dēfēnsus, firmātus, tūtus

Declension

First/second-declension adjective.

	singular				plural
	masculine	feminine	neuter		masculine	feminine	neuter
nominative	īnfestus	īnfesta	īnfestum		īnfestī	īnfestae	īnfesta
genitive	īnfestī	īnfestae	īnfestī		īnfestōrum	īnfestārum	īnfestōrum
dative	īnfestō	īnfestae	īnfestō		īnfestīs
accusative	īnfestum	īnfestam	īnfestum		īnfestōs	īnfestās	īnfesta
ablative	īnfestō	īnfestā	īnfestō		īnfestīs
vocative	īnfeste	īnfesta	īnfestum		īnfestī	īnfestae	īnfesta

Derived terms

• īnfestō

Descendants

• Old Spanish: enfiesto
  • Spanish: enhiesto
• Portuguese: infesto

References

• “infestus” on page 987 of the Oxford Latin Dictionary (2nd ed., 2012)
• De Vaan, Michiel (2008) “īnfestus”, in Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 303

Further reading

• “infestus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “infestus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• infestus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.