English → Latin
“plague” in Latin
pestilentiainfectious or contagious disease; plague, pestilencemalusunpleasant, distressing, painful, nasty, bad; unpleasant to the senses, sight, smell, taste, touch; bad, evil, wicked, mincommodusinconvenient, unsuitable, unfit, unseasonable; troublesome, disagreeablemolestiatrouble, troublesomeness, irksomeness; uneasiness, annoyance; molestationonusburden, load; cargo, freight; tax, tax burdenvexōto shake or jolt violently; to harass, annoy; to vex, trouble (strong term, involving violence)
The English word plague itself goes back to Latin plangō, through plāga.
Riddle & Arnold A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon, 1864
plague s.
A pestilence, pestilentia (☞ not pestis) [Vid: PESTILENCE].
An evil, trouble, malum; incommodum.
Annoyance, molestia; onus: to be a plague to anybody, alicui esse molestiae (Plaut.), oneri (Liv.); onerare aliquem (Cic.).
plague v.
molestiam alicui afferre; molestia aliquem afficere; vexare; alicui aliqua re molestum or gravem esse: to plague one’s self, se magnis in laboribus exercere.
Quick answer
- What is the Latin word for plague?
- The usual Latin words for “plague” are pestilentia, malus, incommodus; also molestia, onus, vexō. The right choice depends on the sense; see the distinctions below.
Entry from J. E. Riddle & T. K. Arnold, A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon (rev. C. Anthon, New York: Harper, 1864), digitised by Fergus J. P. Walsh, CC BY-SA 4.0; Latin markup adapted by latindictionary.co.