fomite
UK /ˈfəʊmʌɪt/ · US /ˈfoʊmaɪt/ noun
Forms fomites
- noun (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.
Synonyms
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.
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 — from the Wiktionary entry “fomite”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details