pest
noun
- plant or animal detrimental to humans or human concerns
Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /pɛst/ / /pɛʃt/
name
Etymology: From Hungarian Pest, ultimately from Old Church Slavonic пещь (peštĭ, “furnace, oven”). Compare German Ofen (“Buda”, literally “oven”).
- One of the originally three separate cities that were united in 1873 to become the Hungarian capital, Budapest.
- The corresponding part of the current-day city of Budapest, on the eastern side of the Danube.
“On a drizzly mid-January evening, I stood at the arches of the wall of Buda Castle, overlooking the Danube and the 19th-century Chain Bridge that links Buda with Pest.”
- A county in central Hungary, surrounding Budapest.
noun
Etymology: In the 16th century in the sense of "pestilence" and specifically bubonic plague from Middle French peste (“pestilence”) (whence French peste). The other meanings are recorded soon after. Ultimately from Latin pestis.
- A pestilence, i.e. a deadly epidemic, a deadly plague.
“From the perspective of traditional Chinese culture, pests and famines are reflections of the current administration’s lack of moral values and deviation from divine will. The head of the administration (the emperor in the past) would then issue an edict to sincerely repent and correct his wrongdoings.”
- Any destructive insect that attacks crops or livestock; an agricultural pest.
- An annoying person, a nuisance.
- An animal regarded as a nuisance, destructive, or a parasite, vermin.
- An invasive weed.