| 释义 |
epizootic, a. and n.|ˌɛpɪzəʊˈɒtɪk|
[ad. Fr. épizootique, f. épizootie: see next. In sense 2 taken as f. ἐπί (with interpretation ‘subsequent to’) + ζῷον animal.]
A. adj.
1. Of diseases: Temporarily prevalent among animals; opposed to enzootic. Cf. epidemic.
1790Gentl. Mag. June 496/2 Diseases are not so prevalent amongst our cattle (at least epizo-otic diseases are not)... Epizo-otic diseases are, in the brute creation, what epidemic diseases are in men. 1865Reader 12 Aug. 178/3 A new epizootic disease has broken out among the horned cattle. 1880Times 15 Sept. 7/6 Epizootic pleuro-pneumonia.
†2. Geol. Used by Kirwan as an epithet of ‘secondary’ mountains, to denote ‘their posteriority to the existence of organized substances’.
1799Kirwan Geol. Ess. 161. 1840 W. Humble Dict. Geol. & Min., Epizootic, containing animal remains, as epizootic hills, or epizootic strata.
B. n. An epizootic disease; a plague among cattle.
1748Short in Chambers Dom. Ann. Scotl. II. 437, note, This epizootic raged also in England and other countries. 1827De Quincey Last Days Kant Wks. III. 124 Cats being so eminently an electric animal..he attributed this epizootic to electricity. 1882Jrnl. Linn. Soc. XVI. 187 All epizootics of this character are immediately due to excessive multiplication of worms. |