Infectors

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A group of organisms or entities capable of transmitting disease or infection to hosts; entities that introduce harmful agents into a healthy environment; individuals or factors responsible for spreading contagions within a population
2. Organisms or agents known for their role in the dissemination of infectious diseases; elements that can compromise the health of others through infection; those that instigate the spread of pathogens among susceptible hosts
3. Entities that facilitate the infection of living organisms with pathogens; factors contributing to the transmission of diseases to healthy individuals; organisms that can introduce infectious agents into a previously uninfected group

Etymology: In Latin, "inficere" meant to dip something into a liquid, to stain or dye it, and only figuratively to taint or spoil it. Combining "in-" ("into") with "facere" ("to make" or "to do"), it described putting something into a state it could not easily leave. English "infect" kept that sense of contact and corruption, and the disease sense grew out of the figurative one. "Infectors" is the plural of "infector," an agent noun formed from "infect" with the suffix "-or," meaning one that carries out the action. The term is rare and mostly technical, which is why it reads as more clinical than the everyday "infection."

Synonyms: contagions, pathogens, germs, viruses, bacteria