pestavby

Pestavby is a toponymic term that appears in some Scandinavian-language sources and in fictional or historical texts to denote a village associated with plague. It is not the name of a widely recognized contemporary locality.

Origin and meaning: The name combines pest-, referring to pestilence or plague, with -by, a common suffix meaning village or settlement in Swedish, Danish, and other Nordic languages. The construction mirrors other plague-related toponyms in medieval Europe, where settlements were named for events such as pest outbreaks.

Geographic usage: There is no widely known modern locality officially called Pestavby. The form may appear in older manuscripts, maps, or narrative works as a descriptive or invented place name. Variants and transliterations may occur depending on language and manuscript transmission.

Historical context: In medieval and early modern Scandinavia, plague outbreaks affected rural communities. Toponyms combining pest and by could have served as descriptive labels, though such names would typically be replaced or anonymized in official records over time.

See also: -by (toponym suffix); pest (plague).

References: For further onomastic study, see works on Scandinavian place-name etymology and historical linguistics.