infect

English

Etymology 1

From Middle French infect, from Latin infectus, perfect passive participle of inficiō (“dye, taint”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɪnˈfɛkt/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛkt

Verb

infect (third-person singular simple present infects, present participle infecting, simple past and past participle infected)

1. (transitive) To bring (the body or part of it) into contact with a substance that causes illness (a pathogen), so that the pathogen begins to act on the body; (of a pathogen) to come into contact with (a body or body part) and begin to act on it.

   Not everyone will be infected when an epidemic strikes.

   • 2013 May-June, Katie L. Burke, “In the News”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3, page 193:

     Bats host many high-profile viruses that can infect humans, including severe acute respiratory syndrome and Ebola.

   • 2020 February 18, Isabella Kwai, “How a Pharmacy Handles Mask Hoarders and Coronavirus Fears”, in The New York Times‎, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 18 February 2020, Asia Pacific‎:

     Ms. Tang’s inevitable contact with people who are ill has started to worry her. It did not help when she learned that someone living in a building near her own, in Siu Sai Wan, had been infected by the virus.

2. (transitive) To contaminate (an object or substance) with a pathogen.
3. (transitive) To make somebody enthusiastic about one's own passion, or to communicate a feeling to others, or a feeling communicating itself to others.

   Her passion for dancing has infected me.

   • 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XIII, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume II, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 164:

     Guido, by way of diverting the embarrassment which seemed to infect them all, began to unfasten the packet of letters.

Synonyms

• (to contaminate): leper (rare)

Antonyms

• disinfect

Derived terms

• autoinfect
• camfecting
• coinfect
• infectability
• infectable
• infectee
• infectible
• infection
• infective
• infectome
• infector
• noninfecting
• reinfect
• superinfect
• uninfecting

Related terms

• infectious

Translations

to bring into contact with a substance that causes illness

Afrikaans: aansteek Arabic: أَعْدَى (ʔaʕdā) Armenian: please add this translation if you can Asturian: infestar, contaxar Bulgarian: заразявам (bg) (zarazjavam) Burmese: please add this translation if you can Catalan: infectar (ca), contagiar (ca) Chinese: Mandarin: 傳染 / 传染 (zh) (chuánrǎn), 感染 (zh) (gǎnrǎn) Czech: nakazit (cs), infikovat Danish: smitte (da) Dutch: infecteren (nl), besmetten (nl) Esperanto: infekti Finnish: tartuttaa (fi) French: infecter (fr) Galician: infectar (gl) Georgian: ინფიცირება (inpicireba), გადადება (gadadeba), დასნებოვნება (dasnebovneba), დასენიანება (dasenianeba) German: anstecken (de), infizieren (de) Hungarian: fertőz (hu), megfertőz (hu) Ido: infektar (io) Irish: galraigh, ionfhabhtaigh Italian: contagiare (it), infettare (it) Japanese: 感染させる (ja) (かんせんさせる, kansen saseru) Khmer: ឆ្លង (km) (chlɑɑng) Latvian: inficēt Malay: jangkit (ms) Maori: whakapoke Norman: înfecter (Jersey) Occitan: infectar (oc) Polish: zakażać (pl) impf, zakazić (pl) pf, zarażać (pl) impf, zarazić (pl) pf Portuguese: infectar (pt), contagiar (pt) Quechua: qatiy (qu) Romanian: infecta (ro), contamina (ro) Russian: заража́ть (ru) impf (zaražátʹ), зарази́ть (ru) pf (zarazítʹ), инфици́ровать (ru) impf or pf (inficírovatʹ) Slovene: okužiti Spanish: infectar (es), contagiar (es), inficionar (es) Swedish: smitta (sv), infektera (sv) Thai: ติดเชื้อ (th) (dtìt-chʉ́ʉa) Tibetan: རྣག་བསགས (rnag bsags) Vietnamese: nhiễm (vi), lây (vi) Volapük: näfätön (vo)

to make somebody enthusiastic about one's own passion

Bulgarian: заразявам (bg) (zarazjavam) Chinese: Mandarin: 感染 (zh) (gǎnrǎn) Dutch: infecteren (nl) Finnish: tartuttaa (fi) French: infecter (fr) Georgian: გადადება (gadadeba), გადაცემა (gadacema), გადასდებს (gadasdebs), გადასცემს (gadascems) German: anstecken (de), infizieren (de) Hungarian: megfertőz (hu) Portuguese: contagiar (pt) Romanian: contagia (ro) Russian: заража́ть (ru) impf (zaražátʹ), зарази́ть (ru) pf (zarazítʹ) Slovene: okužiti Spanish: contagiar (es), alborotar (es) Swedish: smitta (sv) Vietnamese: lan truyền (vi)

Adjective

infect (not comparable)

1. (obsolete) Infected.
   • c. 1602, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iii], line 187:

     And in the imitation of these twain, / Who, as Ulysses says, opinion crowns / With an imperial voice, many are infect.

Etymology 2

Borrowed from Latin īnfectus, equivalent to in- (“not”) + factus, perfect passive participle of faciō (“to do, make”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɪnfɛkt/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪnfɛkt

Adjective

infect (not comparable)

1. (rare, grammar, of a tense or verb form) Representing an action not yet completed.

   Coordinate terms: perfect, imperfect

Anagrams

• netfic

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin īnfectus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɛ̃.fɛkt/

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Toulouse)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Lyon)):

  (file)

• Audio (France):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Lyon)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Agen)):

  (file)

• Homophones: infecte, infectes, infects

Adjective

infect (feminine infecte, masculine plural infects, feminine plural infectes)

1. vile, loathsome
2. revolting, disgusting

Synonyms

• répugnant, dégueulasse, immonde

Descendants

• → Romanian: infect

Further reading

• “infect”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French infect, from Latin infectus.

Adjective

infect m or n (feminine singular infectă, masculine plural infecți, feminine and neuter plural infecte)

1. revolting, disgusting (about smells)
2. vile, loathsome (about humans)

Declension

Declension of infect

		singular				plural
		masculine	neuter	feminine		masculine	neuter	feminine
nominative- accusative	indefinite	infect		infectă		infecți	infecte
	definite	infectul		infecta		infecții	infectele
genitive- dative	indefinite	infect		infecte		infecți	infecte
	definite	infectului		infectei		infecților	infectelor