the.com/fester
What wounds and grudges do when you ignore them instead of cleaning them.
means To rot or decay slowly, especially a wound infected with pus, or by extension, a bad feeling that worsens the longer it's left unaddressed.
from From Old French 'festre' (a sore or fistula), tracing back to Latin 'fistula,' meaning a pipe, tube, or ulcer — the same word that gives us the musical instrument's name. Medieval surgeons used it for sores that wouldn't heal, often forming a channel under the skin. English borrowed it in the 1300s for literal wounds, and only later did it widen into the metaphor we lean on now — grudges, resentments, and unspoken grievances all 'festering' the same way an untreated sore does.
- original sense
- meant an infected sore, literally pus-forming
- etymology
- from latin fistula, meaning pipe or ulcer
- modern use
- applies to resentment, guilt, and unopened mail
- key feature
- gets worse specifically because nobody addresses it