Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Plural form of fomite.
  • noun Plural form of fomes.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Harvath then became acquainted with the word fomites, a term used by modern epidemiologists to describe items such as garments, bedclothes, cups, and toothbrushes, which were known to possess the capability to harbor infectious pathogens.

    Blowback Brad Thor 2005

  • Harvath then became acquainted with the word fomites, a term used by modern epidemiologists to describe items such as garments, bedclothes, cups, and toothbrushes, which were known to possess the capability to harbor infectious pathogens.

    Blowback Brad Thor 2005

  • Dr. SPELLBERG: You know, all of these organisms can be spread by contact directly with a source patient who's carrying them but can also be spread by what are called fomites, which are simply inanimate objects someone touches, leaves a trace of the bacteria on it.

    NPR Topics: News 2010

  • Dr. SPELLBERG: You know, all of these organisms can be spread by contact directly with a source patient who's carrying them but can also be spread by what are called fomites, which are simply inanimate objects someone touches, leaves a trace of the bacteria on it.

    NPR Topics: News 2010

  • Then the theory of "fomites" arose, and underwent investigation.

    How to Study and Teaching How to Study 1899

  • Regulations prohibiting citizens from coming into contact with known fomites went back almost four thousand years.

    Blowback Brad Thor 2005

  • Regulations prohibiting citizens from coming into contact with known fomites went back almost four thousand years.

    Blowback Brad Thor 2005

  • I think it's ideal for sanitizing to occur if that person can't be limited, for example, refresh the air with an air sanitizer likely Lysol, which has a disinfecting alcohol spray that's useful, clean surfaces and counters and door knobs so that they don't become fomites for other family members.

    CNN Transcript Feb 8, 2004 2004

  • You can wash your hands prior to eating or drinking anything and that in and of itself will cut down on your exposure from these fomites, like door knobs.

    CNN Transcript Feb 8, 2004 2004

  • Scabies is normally treated with a scrub bath, boiling the fomites (clothes and bed linens), and application of benzyl benzoate.

    11: Human health care 1996

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  • "Doctors relied on two prevailing theories about yellow fever: One camp believed it was mysteriously spread by filthy conditions, much like cholera and dysentery. Terms like fomites, effuvia sic? and noxious gases peppered medical literature in an attempt to explain what substance ... spread the disease."

    —Molly Caldwell Crosby, The American Plague (New York: Berkeley Books, 2006), 39

    October 5, 2008