epizootic
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /ɛpɪ.zəˈwɒtɪk/
ipa: /ɛpɪ.zoʊˈɒtɪk/
note: in the sense ‘an ailment’
ipa: /ɛpɪˈzuːdɪk/
Forms: form: more epizootic
form: most epizootic
form: epizoötic
form: epizoodic
form: epizudic
Etymology: From French épizootique, animal equivalent of epidemic, from épizootie, irregularly formed from Ancient Greek ἐπί (epí) + ζῷον (zōîon, “animal”).
By surface analysis, epi- + zo- + -otic. Use of the word in the second sense, "an ailment", was likely originally a reference to a particular epizootic ailment. Both senses are attested since at least the 1800s, and the pronunciation with five syllables is explicitly attested since then as well. Dialectal pronunciation of the second sense with four syllables is attested since at least the 1910s in spellings like "epizudic" and is suggested by 1870s references to a shortened form of the word, "zooty".
Senses: examples: text: Epizootic plague occurred in the mice following introduction of rats from Europe.
text: As much attention is being drawn to the subject of epizootic abortion in bovines, [...]
ref: 1913 September, J. J. Desmond, “An enzootic of contagious abortion in cattle”, in American Journal of Veterinary Medicine, volume VIII, number 9, page 470:
text: These are known respectively as the hair lung worm and the thread lung worm. The former of these is probably the more widely diffused, but the latter is more epizootic in flocks than the former.
ref: 1914, Thomas Shaw, Management and Feeding of Sheep, page 398:
text: 1919 March 19, author not named, The Mud Larks, in Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 156, 2004 Gutenberg edition,
I handed it back to him, explaining that he had come to the wrong shop--unless he were a horse, of course. If he were and could provide his own nosebag, head-stall and Army Form 1640, testifying that he was guiltless of mange, ophthalmia or epizootic lymphangitis, I would do what I could for him.
text: The parasites important in Britain do, however, by themselves constitute a most serious source of loss to pig breeders — probably at least as serious as that caused by the various more spectacular but more epizootic bacterial diseases.
ref: 1933, British Veterinary Journal, volume 89, page 74:
topics: epidemiology
medicine
sciences
coordinate_terms: word: enzootic#Adjective
word: panzootic#Adjective
word: ;
english: humans
translation: humans
word: endemic#Adjective
word: epidemic#Adjective
word: pandemic#Adjective
english: plants
translation: plants
word: enphytotic#Adjective
word: epiphytotic#Adjective
word: panphytotic#Adjective
glosses: Like or having to do with an epizootic: a widespread outbreak of disease among nonhuman animals.
examples: text: Hence their primary division is into primeval and secondary or Epizootic. And the epizootic mountains are still farther distinguishable into original and derivative.
ref: 1799, Richard Kirwan, Geological Essays, pages 160–161:
topics: geography
geology
natural-sciences
glosses: Containing fossils.
glosses: Relating to epizoa; epizoic.
Derived terms: antiepizootic
epizootically
epizootic hemorrhagic disease
epizootize
interepizootic
nonepizootic
Related terms: endemic
epidemic
epizoology
pandemic
panzootic
zootic