Pronounced: HIGH-bine-duhr, noun
Notes: Interesting etymology for this one
Yesterday’s word
The word fomite means “an object (for example, a dish or article of clothing) that may be contaminated with infectious organisms and serve in their transmission.
First usage
This word came into usage in the mid-1800s
Background / Comments
Our word is back-formation of fomites, the Latin plural of fomes (tinder). As tinder can start a fire, a fomite can kindle a disease. The Latin word fomes is related to the Latin verb for “to heat”, from which we get the word “foment”… thus, a fomite can foment disease.
Richard's Vocabulary Word-of-the-Day 