epidemicadj.n.
/ˌɛpᵻˈdɛmɪk/, U.S. /ˌɛpəˈdɛmɪk/ A. adj.
1.
a. Of an acute disease, esp. one that is not usually present in a region or population: affecting many individuals within a short period of time; suddenly and widely prevalent.Originally such diseases were often attributed to factors such as local climatic conditions, but they were later shown to be mainly of infectious origin.Typically contrasted with endemic adj. b and sporadic adj. 1.
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the world > health and disease > ill health > a disease > types > [adjective] > epidemic
popular?a1425
epidemial1568
epidemical1595
epidemian1599
epidemic1603
exidemical1608
1603 T. Lodge Treat. Plague i. sig. Bv An Epidemick plague, is a common and popular sicknesse, hapning in some region, or countrey, at a certaine time,..producing in all sorts of people, one and the same kind of sicknesse.
1641 R. More True Relation Murders Clunne 142 The purple Feavour was then Epidemicke, and many families in the towne visited therewith.
1783 W. Cowper Let. 29 Sept. (1981) II. 164 The Epidemic fever..has prevailed much in this part of the Kingdom.
1803 T. R. Malthus Ess. Princ. Population (new ed.) ii. x. 330 The endemick and epidemick diseases in Scotland, fall chiefly, as is usual, on the poor.
1871 J. Tyndall Fragm. Sci. (ed. 6) II. xii. 280 Reproductive parasitic life is at the root of epidemic disease.
1910 Jrnl. Royal Army Med. Corps 14 236 It seems probable that phlebotomus fever was epidemic at the same time as malaria.
1991 Saudi Med. Jrnl. 12 79/2 Group B meningococcus continues to cause most of the sporadic disease in the USA and epidemic disease in Brazil and Chile.
2021 Daily Times (Pakistan) (Nexis) 30 Apr. He said that Corona has become epidemic and all agencies are trying to control this.
b. Of, relating to, or associated with such a disease. Also (of a year or time of year): characterized by the occurrence of such a disease.
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1629 W. Davenant Trag. Albovine iv. i. sig. I3v When I am more my Chronicle, or speake My deeds with pride, may my tongue blister, till't Infect my breath with Epidemick-heate.
1685 tr. T. Willis London Pract. Physick 604 They proceed, not from an Infected Air, or Epidemick Cause, but from a morbid Disposition of the Body.
1750 T. Short New Observ. Bills of Mortality 101 But in large, open, healthy Country Places, one fatal epidemic Year, kills as many as usually die in 6, 10, 15..of the healthiest Years.
1790 Trans. Royal Soc. Edinb. 2 ii. i. 63 The mumps made its appearance in an epidemic form at Lynn in 1758.
1884 C. T. Kingzett Nature's Hygiene (ed. 2) vii. 140 One of the most important facts to be gathered from history, is the liability of human beings to be attacked by diseases of an epidemic nature.
1911 Science 12 May 724/1 There has appeared in the eastern United States a destructive fungous disease of the chestnut tree, known as the chestnut blight, which as a disease in epidemic form threatens to destroy the native chestnut throughout North America.
1940 Brit. Med. Jrnl. 21 Dec. 875/1 The sole matter at issue is the health of whole communities now gravely menaced—a menace the graver because the epidemic months of January and February are upon us.
1981 Jrnl. Hygiene 87 127 The epidemic behaviour of Streptococcus pyogenes is best interpreted as that of an organism of low epidemic potential which confers strong homotypic but poor heterotypic immunity.
2016 Avian Dis. 60 481/2 This survey was conducted between November 2013 and January 2014, which is the avian influenza (AI) epidemic season in China.
c. In names of specific diseases that occur in epidemic form.
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the world > health and disease > ill health > a disease > types > [adjective] > epidemic > affected with
epidemic1652
1652 W. Charleton Darknes Atheism Advt. to Rdr. sig. C3 The Clue of our studies was broken off..by the rough hand of the late Epidemick Dysentery.
1782 W. Cowper Conversation in Poems 232 We next enquire.., like conservators of the public health, Of epidemic throats if such there are, And coughs and rheums and phtisic and catarrh.
1799 N. Webster Brief Hist. Epidemic & Pestilential Dis. II. xiv. 65 But these are very different, at least in degree, from a general epidemic influenza, which seizes mankind in all climates.
1832 Medico-chirurg. Rev., & Jrnl. Pract. Med. 16 633 Frank's account embraces almost every feature and phenomenon of the epidemic cholera, or rather choleric fever, as described by Asiatic, Continental, or English writers.
1924 D. Greene in Arch. Pediatrics 41 328 An epidemic disease which, because of its symptomatology, may best be called epidemic pleurodynia has been described.
2014 Q. Rev. Biol. 89 271/2 Within the family Rickettsiaceae, human pathogens include typhus group Rickettsia (e.g., R. prowazekiiand R. typhi, the causal agents of epidemic typhus and murine typhus).
d. More generally: designating a health-related condition or behaviour that occurs more often than is expected or that is widely or increasingly prevalent in a group or population.
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1744 Epist. to Fair-Sex on Drinking 35 Whether this Malady [sc. female drinking], that is epidemic, has, in all Places, the like Bad effects.
1782 T. Arnold Observ. Nature Insanity I. 322 As all these absurdities abounded in the dark ages of ignorance and credulity, so the several sorts of epidemic Insanity..have been the peculiar production of those ages.
1838 Dublin Rev. Jan. 214 The late Dr. Gregory used to relate the occurrence of an epidemic hysteria in the wards of the Edinburgh Infirmary.
1881 Alienist & Neurologist 2 185 Inebriety is both endemic and epidemic.
1933 B. Gadelius Human Mentality vi. 142 Religious ecstasy is still capable of raising epidemic psychopathies like those of ancient times.
1978 Milbank Memorial Fund Q.: Health & Society 56 287 Was it [sc. regular exercise] a reaction to sedentary lifestyle, to overindulgent eating and epidemic obesity,..or a way to steal some personal time for reflection?
2009 GlobeNewswire (Nexis) 18 Mar. Diabetes has become epidemic in America, and is caused by unhealthy diets, sedentary lifestyles, and obesity.
2016 Guardian (Nexis) 16 May As in much of America, opioid addiction is epidemic.
2. figurative. Of a phenomenon, typically an undesirable phenomenon: widespread, widely prevalent, universal.
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the world > relative properties > kind or sort > generality > [adjective] > general or prevalent
commona1325
generala1393
usual1396
popular?a1425
riveda1513
vulgarc1550
current1563
afloat1571
widespread1582
penny-rife1606
catholic1607
spacious1610
epidemical1614
epidemial1616
epidemic1617
prevailent1623
regnant1623
fashionablea1627
wide-spreading1655
endemical1658
prevalent1658
endemiala1682
obtaining1682
prevailing1682
endemious1684
sterling1696
running1697
(as) common as dirt (also muck)1737
prevailant1794
exoteric1814
endemic1852
widish1864
prolate1882
going1909
1617 J. Vicars tr. F. Herring Mischeefes Mysterie ii. 85 And then with guilty conscience they remember Their Epidemick purpos'd treachery.
1634 T. Herbert Relation Some Yeares Trauaile 150 They haue Arack or Vsquebagh, distilled from Dates or Rice, both which are Epidemick in their mirth and Festiuals.
1643 J. Milton Doctr. Divorce 33 A toleration of epidemick whordom.
1667 E. Waterhouse Short Narr. Fire London 110 That Epidemique mercy that he hath obliged all by.
a1745 J. Swift On Bill for Clergy in Misc. Pieces (1789) 137 The trade of universal stealing is not so epidemick there as with us.
1834 T. Medwin Angler in Wales II. 263 Perhaps beauty is demic or epidemic here.
1868 M. Pattison Suggestions Acad. Organisation §5. 133 The mania for prize scholarships, then epidemic, infected the curators.
1974 New Society 19 Sept. 727/1 It is among managerial and professional workers that sponging, skiving and malingering is epidemic.
2015 N.Y. Mag. 9 Mar. 134/2 ‘Surround Audience’ has way too many lengthy wall labels... Wall labels like these are epidemic in museums.
3. Of the rate or magnitude of a disease or other phenomenon: of or resembling that of an epidemic, very high; as in epidemic levels, epidemic proportions, etc.
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1850 Sanitary Econ. vi. 306 When we find these premonitory symptoms appearing on an epidemic scale, we have the seeds of cholera planted, but still capable of being uprooted.
1942 Gen 15 Sept. 24/2 White feather hand-outs..to men and women not in uniform have now reached epidemic proportions.
1991 Sci. Amer. Feb. 18/1 Those three sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) have actually been increasing at epidemic rates.
2003 MX News 13 Feb. 5/2 Chocoholism reached almost epidemic proportions last year.
2015 Church Times 2 Oct. 10/3 Stone theft was reaching ‘epidemic’ levels in parts of Britain.
B. n.
1. figurative. A sudden, widespread occurrence of a phenomenon, typically an undesirable phenomenon.
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the world > relative properties > quantity > increase in quantity, amount, or degree > [noun] > rapid or sharp increase > likened to an outbreak of disease
epidemic1630
epidemy1790
rash1854
outbreak1928
1630 M. Godwin tr. F. Godwin Ann. Eng. ii. 252 He was a pious just man,..only a little tainted with the Epidemique of those times [L. communi temporum errore abreptus].
1821 New Monthly Mag. 2 301 Cant is the epidemic of periodical essayism.
1856 B. Brodie Psychol. Inq. (ed. 3) I. i. 26 There are epidemics of opinion as well as of disease.
1903 Atlanta (Georgia) Constit. 20 Dec. 5/6 There has been a raffling epidemic in Columbus during the past week or two, numerous articles of merchandise being raffled off.
1920 P. Gibbs Realities of War viii. v. 437 There was an epidemic of dancing, Jazzing, card-playing, theatre-going.
2012 Daily Tel. (Nexis) 4 Feb. 30 An epidemic of unneighbourliness is sweeping the nation.
2.
a. An epidemic disease (cf. sense A. 1a); a sudden, widespread occurrence of such a disease.
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the world > health and disease > ill health > a disease > types > [noun] > epidemic disease
land-evil?c1225
epidemy1472
land-illc1500
epidemic1666
epidemical1676
exidemic1847
1666 G. Harvey Morbus Anglicus i. 3 And considering withall its malignity and catching nature, it [sc. a Consumption] may be connumerated (numbred) with the worst of Epidemicks (popular diseases).
1696 J. Pechey tr. T. Sydenham Whole Wks. i. i. 4 These [sc. acute diseases] I call Intercurrent or Sporadick, because they happen at any time, when Epidemicks [L. Epidemici] rage.
1799 Med. & Physical Jrnl. 2 468 He observed the variolous epidemic among a flock of sheep.
1859 F. Nightingale Notes on Nursing i. 10 The crowded national school! where so many children's epidemics have their origin.
1947 Times 18 Aug. 5/4 Can we be surprised at epidemics when our butchers' and fishmongers' shops are crawling with flies and bluebottles?
1998 D. G. Jones Epidemiol. Plant Dis. i. 4 The large-scale use of monocultures..is the one factor that has resulted in the occurrence of far more plant disease epidemics.
2019 D. Werb City of Omens iv. 85 We're generally focused on understanding what's driving an epidemic in the here and now rather than projecting how the epidemic might look in some distant future.
b. An increase in the prevalence of a non-infectious health-related condition or behaviour in a group or population.
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1791 Amer. Museum Sept. 149 Could any degree of sobriety be looked for in an air, tainted..with the principles of intoxication, engendering drunkenness as an epidemic. Would not any one think, that where such is the rage for whiskey, that it was all in all, the one thing needful, the alpha and omega of life.
1827 Q. Periscope Pract. Med. Jan. in Medico-chirurg. Rev. 6 227 A soldier having hanged himself on a post, his example was followed..by twelve other invalids—and that by removing this fatal post, the suicidal epidemic was put an end to.
1887 Brit. Med. Jrnl. 23 July 195/1 Three medical men..came to the conclusion that it was an epidemic of hysteria.
1958 Brit. Med. Jrnl. 21 June 1483/1 This was tantamount to accepting the view that a major part of the epidemic of lung cancer is preventable because tobacco-smoking is readily preventable.
1986 Toronto Star (Nexis) 13 Sept. (Life section) 5 None of these [factors] fully explains the obesity epidemic.
1995 N.Y. Times (Nexis) 30 Oct. 16/6 The American life style, emphasizing rich foods and leisure, is the prime contributor to the epidemic of diabetes in this country.
2016 Independent (Nexis) 26 Jan. Racial stereotypes may be playing a role in the US opioid overdose epidemic, according to a leading expert on opioid addiction.
c. A sudden and widespread infestation with parasites; (also) a sudden upsurge in the population of any species considered to be a pest.
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1864 T. S. Cobbold Entozoa ii. xii. 352 About three months previously, Dr. Thudichum published an account of the flesh-worm epidemic as it had occurred in Germany.
1892 Glasgow Herald 5 May 6/5 The absence of birds of prey has been put forward as a reason for this epidemic of mice.
1938 Insect Pest Surv. Bull. 18 620 Throughout the State [sc. Missouri] there has been an unusual epidemic of mosquitoes this fall.
1997 Sunday Times 26 Oct. (Style section) 48/2 Head lice are, of course, periodically still a problem—schools are reporting an epidemic this year.
2019 Express Online (Nexis) 22 Feb. A locust epidemic in the Empty Quarter region of Saudi Arabia, near the Yemen-Oman border.
Compounds
epidemic neuromyasthenia n. now rare a condition of unknown origin (though sometimes occurring after a viral infection) characterized by debilitating fatigue and other non-specific symptoms such as headache and myalgia; = chronic fatigue syndrome n. at chronic adj. Additions.
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1957 New Eng. Med. Jrnl. Med. 22 Aug. 384/2 The authors of the papers reported here..have selected the designation ‘epidemic neuromyasthenia’ as the most suitable and the least objectionable.
1994 Clin. Infectious Dis. 18 (Suppl. 1) 7 Alexis Shelokov added that the name epidemic neuromyasthenia was quite controversial... The committee eventually agreed with Drs. Henderson and Shelkov and epidemic neuromyasthenia became the preferred term for CFS [= chronic fatigue syndrome].
2015 Lancet Psychiatry 2 1044/1 The diverse nomenclature reflects heterogeneity in the disorder's conceptualisation, spawning terms as divergent as chronic Epstein–Barr virus, epidemic neuromyasthenia..and chronic fatigue immune dysfunction syndrome.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2022).
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adj.n.1603