fomite

See also: fómite

English

Etymology

A back-formation from fomites, plural of fomes, a borrowing of medical Latin fōmes (“tinder, kindling”), used figuratively to evoke the analogy of a spreading infection to a spreading fire.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈfəʊmʌɪt/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈfoʊmaɪt/

Noun

fomite (plural fomites)

1. (medicine) An inanimate object capable of carrying infectious agents (such as bacteria, viruses or prions), and thus passively enabling their transmission between hosts; common examples include towels, dishcloths, kitchenware/flatware, and laundry.
   • 1859, Richard Francis Burton, “The Lake Regions of Central Equatorial Africa...”, in Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, number 29, page 134:

     This must be an efficacious fomite of cutaneous and pectoral disease.

   • 2009, Raina M. Maier et al., Environmental Microbiology, page 559:

     Alternatively, such fluids may be transferred from soiled hands to fomites, or airborne organisms may impinge or settle onto fomite surfaces. Fomites may also serve as a site for the replication of a pathogen, as in the case of enteric bacteria in household sponges or dishcloths.

Synonyms

• fomes (archaic)

Translations

inanimate object capable of transferring infectious agents

• Catalan: fòmit (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 傳染物／传染物 (chuánrǎnwù), 媒介物 (zh) (méijièwù), 病媒 (zh) (bìngméi)

• Dutch: fomiet (nl) m
• Esperanto: please add this translation if you can
• Finnish: fomiitti (fi)
• French: vecteur passif m, fomite (fr) m
• German: Fomite m, Infektionsträger m
• Irish: fóimít f
• Italian: fomite (it) m
• Japanese: 媒介物 (ばいかいぶつ, baikaibutsu)
• Korean: 매개물(媒介物) (maegaemul)
• Portuguese: fómite (pt) m (Portugal), fômite (pt) m (Brazil)
• Romanian: fomite n
• Russian: возбуди́тель (ru) m (vozbudítelʹ), перено́счик (ru) m (perenósčik), посре́дник (ru) m (posrédnik), фомиты pl (fomity)
• Spanish: fómite (es) m
• Thai: please add this translation if you can
• Turkish: fomit

References

• “fomite, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1897.

Italian

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin fōmes.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈfɔ.mi.te/
• Rhymes: -ɔmite
• Hyphenation: fò‧mi‧te

Noun

fomite m (plural fomiti)

1. incitement
2. cause, source
   • 1980, Umberto Eco, “Primo giorno - Sesta”, in Il nome della rosa [The Name of the Rose] (I grandi tascabili), Milan: Bompiani, published 1984, page 71:

     Egli ha insozzato la parola di Gioacchino di Calabria e ne ha fatto fomite di morte e sporcizia!

     He besmirched Gioacchino di Calabria's words and made them source of death and filth!

Latin

Noun

fōmite

1. ablative singular of fōmes