epizootic
/ɛpɪ.zəˈwɒtɪk/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: 1.59 in modern English
22
Scrabble Score
9
Letters
3
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
An occurrence of a disease or disorder in a population of non-human animals at a frequency higher than that expected in a given time period.
noun
A particular epizootic disease.
adj
Like or having to do with an epizootic: a widespread outbreak of disease among nonhuman animals.
adj
Example Sentences
- "At the same time as an epidemic of the flu broke out among the people, an epizootic of the swine flu broke out among their pigs."
- "[…]but it can be asserted with confidence that Natal will for some years yet be free from the possibility of an invasion of the disease to the same degree as the epizootic of 1896 and 1897."
- "A surgeon in the town has also informed me, that a person requested him to prescribe for some lambs affected with the epizootic, and he gave them Epsom salts and opium, with, as he said, very good effect."
- "Johnny's not doing so well today, I think he caught the epizootic."
- "Last fall, when Dad had the Epizootic; no, I don't mean that, tho I did think he had em, but when the Chicargar hosses got the Epizootic, Dad got all fired mad caus that xpressman didn't cum round to move the rest of our traps."
- "Never do I have colds — but I got the epizootics(?) and sneezed my head off — twenty three times yesterday."
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".
Usage
Subject
Wiktionary places this term in Zoology.
Inflected Forms
epizootics (plural)
epizoötic (alternative)
epizoodic (alternative)
epizudic (alternative)
more epizootic (comparative)
most epizootic (superlative)