Autoinfecting

Part of speech: adjective, verb

Definitions

1. Referring to a process whereby an organism causes infection within the same host from which it originated, typically by reintroducing infectious agents internally; describing a mechanism of self-transmission within a singular biological system
2. Characterizing the phenomenon in which a pathogen initiates new infections within its original host without requiring external transmission; indicating a cycle of repeated infection occurring inside a single organism
3. Pertaining to the capability of a disease agent to reinfect its current host by bypassing external contamination; denoting a self-sustaining infectious cycle confined to the original infected individual

Etymology: Autoinfecting is built from "auto-", a combining form from Greek "autos" meaning "self", and "infect", which comes from Latin "inficere", literally "to dye or stain" and later "to taint or contaminate". Put together, the pair describes something that infects itself from within, without needing an outside source of contamination. The "auto-" element has a long career of its own in English, appearing in words such as "automobile" (self-moving) and "autograph" (self-written). Attaching it to "infect" follows the same pattern, producing a term for a process in which an organism or a condition re-seeds its own infection. The verb form is simply "autoinfect", and "autoinfecting" is its present participle, used for the ongoing action.

Synonyms: self-infecting, self-transmitting