Verminate

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To become infested with or to produce parasites and other small pest organisms
2. To teem or swarm with vermin such as lice, fleas, or other troublesome creatures
3. To harbor or allow vermin to multiply and spread throughout something

Etymology: "Verminate" is a rare word, and its history is straightforward: it comes from the Latin "verminare," meaning "to have worms," which was itself built on "vermis," the Latin word for "worm." The Latin verb describes a body or substance producing or harbouring worms, and English took the term over with that literal sense intact. Its root "vermis" is one of the oldest and most widely shared Latin words for a crawling creature, and it has given English a whole family of terms, from "vermin" to "vermicelli." Both the Latin and English forms keep the same core idea of a small creeping thing, which is why the vocabulary of worms and pests stays so closely connected.