Pests

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Unwelcome organisms that negatively affect agriculture or household environments
2. Creatures that pose threats to plants, animals, or human health through their presence in various ecosystems
3. Organisms that cause damage or nuisance to crops, homes, or stored goods

Etymology: "Pests" is simply the plural of "pest," so its history is the history of the singular. Before it meant a troublesome creature, "pest" meant pestilence: in the 16th century English speakers used it for deadly epidemics, and especially for bubonic plague. The word came through Middle French "peste," which carried the same sense, from the Latin "pestis," meaning plague or deadly disease. The shift from disease to animal happened gradually. Other senses were recorded soon after the plague sense, and a pest came to be anything that spread harm or ruin, whether a blight, an insect, or a rodent that carried illness. The creature sense now dominates, so a word that once named the epidemic itself now names the animals that threaten crops, livestock, and people.

Synonyms: vermin, nuisances, bugs, plagues, scourges

Antonyms: beneficial organisms, allies, helpers