epizootic (ep-uh-zo-OT-ik) adjective

   Spreading quickly among many animals.

noun

   Such a disease.

[French epizootique, from epi- + Greek zoion animal.]

   "Nor can today's oldest oldster recall the `great epizootic' of 1872.
   This was a flulike disease that killed at least 20,000 horse-car horses
   in the nation. When the epizootic quit killing horses, inventive Americans
   sought new pulling power."
   Jack Goodman, 'Broadway Battleship's' Brief Run in New York, The Salt Lake
   Tribune, Jun 27, 1999.

   "Said Dr. Anthony Iton, director of health and social services for
   Stamford. 'We have window screens. We spend more time indoors. What that
   taught us was you can have a relatively intense epizootic in birds and
   mosquitoes and not have a human epidemic. Because of our behaviors, we
   protect ourselves from mosquitoes.'"
   Christine Woodside, Mosquitoes? Sure. Spraying? Unclear, The New York
   Times, May 27, 2001.

Author and humorist Mark Twain once observed, "The difference between the
right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning
and a lightning bug." Open a newspaper or magazine and chances are you'll
read about the frightening "epidemic" of mad cow disease. Of course, it is
we who are mad when we feed these herbivore animals body parts of other
animals, including other cows, but I digress. With today's word we know
the right term to use when it comes to an animal disease. The root dem(os)
in the word epidemic, meaning `people' is the same root that gave us the
word democracy. Here are two other words with their animal equivalents:
endemic/enzootic and demography/zoography.

In this week's AWAD, we'll look at some other less-known counterparts of
everyday words.                                                    -Anu

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Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who
dream only by night. -Edgar Allan Poe, poet and short-story writer
(1809-1849)

Mark your calendars: On Aug 1, 2001 at 8 PM ET (GMT -4) our online
chat guest will be Barbara Walraff, an editor at the Atlantic Monthly.
For more details or to join the chat, visit http://wordsmith.org/chat
Comments about this mailing? Contact us at anu@wordsmith.org.

Pronunciation:
http://wordsmith.org/words/epizootic.wav
http://wordsmith.org/words/epizootic.ram