fomiteとは 意味・読み方・使い方

語源

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.

発音

• (英国発音) IPA: /ˈfəʊmʌɪt/
• (米国発音) IPA: /ˈfoʊmaɪt/

名詞

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.

同意語

• fomes (archaic)

参照

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