fomes

Meaning

Noun

• The morbid matter created by a disease.
• Synonym of fomite: a substance able to communicate infection between people.
• Anything which similarly facilitates the spread of something similarly deleterious.

Origin

• From medical Latin fōmes, a figurative extension of its original sense of kindling, tinder, &c. Gradually supplanted in use by fomite, a mistaken backformation of its plural form fomites, from Latin fomites.