plague
pronunciation
How to pronounce plague in British English:
UK [pleɪɡ]
How to pronounce plague in American English:
US [pleɪɡ]
-
- Noun:
- a serious (sometimes fatal) infection of rodents caused by Yersinia pestis and accidentally transmitted to humans by the bite of an infected rat flea (especially bubonic plague)
- any epidemic disease with a high death rate
- a swarm of insects that attack plants
- any large scale calamity (especially when thought to be sent by God)
- an annoyance
-
- Verb:
- cause to suffer a blight
- annoy continually or chronically
Word Origin
- plague
- plague: [14] Etymologically, plague means a ‘blow’ or ‘stroke’. It goes back to the same prehistoric base, *plag- ‘hit’, as produced Latin plangere ‘beat’ (source of English complain, plaintiff [14], plaintive [14], and plangent [19] – which originally denoted the sound of waves ‘beating’ against the shore) and English plankton.From this was derived Greek plāgá ‘blow’, which was borrowed into Latin as plāga ‘blow’, hence ‘wound’. In the Vulgate it was used for an ‘infectious disease’, and was borrowed in this sense (as well as the now defunct ‘blow’) via Old French into English. (*Plak-, a parallel form to *plag-, lies behind English apoplexy and plectrum [17].)=> apoplexy, complain, plaintive, plangent, plankton, plectrum
- plague (n.)
- late 14c., plage, "affliction, calamity, evil, scourge;" early 15c., "malignant disease," from Old French plage (14c.), from Late Latin plaga, used in Vulgate for "pestilence," from Latin plaga "stroke, wound," probably from root of plangere "to strike, lament (by beating the breast)," from or cognate with Greek (Doric) plaga "blow," from PIE *plak- (2) "to strike, to hit" (cognates: Greek plazein "to drive away," plessein "to beat, strike;" Old English flocan "to strike, beat;" Gothic flokan "to bewail;" German fluchen, Old Frisian floka "to curse"). The Latin word also is the source of Old Irish plag (genitive plaige) "plague, pestilence," German Plage, Dutch plaage. Meaning "epidemic that causes many deaths" is from 1540s; specifically in reference to bubonic plague from c. 1600. Modern spelling follows French, which had plague from 15c. Weakened sense of "anything annoying" is from c. 1600.
- plague (v.)
- late 15c., from Middle Dutch plaghen, from plaghe (n.) "plague" (see plague (n.)). Sense of "bother, annoy" it is first recorded 1590s. Related: Plagued; plaguing.
Example
- 1. Avoid both primary and secondary smoke like the plague .
- 2. But other forms of the deadly pathogen still plague victims today .
- 3. In 2004 , eight villagers in qinghai province died of plague .
- 4. In fact , some should avoid blogging like the plague .
- 5. The lung disease is caused by the same bacterium as bubonic plague .