endemic

Etymology

It is borrowed from French endémique, or from New Latin endēmicus,^[2][3][4][5] formed from Ancient Greek ἔνδημος (éndēmos, “native, dwelling in a place”),^[6][2][7][8] from ἐν (en, “in”) and δῆμος (dêmos, “people, district”),^[6][9][8] with the suffix -ic.^[9][10] Merriam-Webster takes the French adjective from the noun endémie (“endemic disease”),^[11] and Barnhart thinks the English adjective may be a shortening of the earlier endemical (1657), or come from the earlier noun.^[10] The same Greek noun is in epidemic and democracy.^[8][12][13]

Earliest recorded meaning

As a noun, an endemic disease: 1662, in John Chandler's translation of van Helmont's Oriatrike.^[9][11][10] Etymonline dates the form endemical to the 1650s.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The word began in medicine: the adjective, first in Goldsmith's Bee (1759), described diseases habitually present in a country from permanent local causes.^[9][10] A figurative use followed in 1852.^[9] Its use in biology, of plants and animals native to a particular area, was taken from French, where the botanist A. P. de Candolle used it in 1820; the OED's first English example is Lyell's of 1868.^[9] The noun followed in the 20th century for a plant native to a limited area (1932).^[9][3] Merriam-Webster now also gives the broader sense "characteristic of a particular field or environment".^[11]

Timeline

• 1650s – endemical.^[6]
• 1662 – noun, an endemic disease.^[9][11]
• 1759 – adjective, of diseases, regularly found in a place.^[9][10]
• 1852 – figurative use.^[9]
• 1868 – of plants or animals, native to a region.^[9]
• 1932 – noun, a plant native to a limited area.^[9]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of a disease, regularly present in a particular area or population: Malaria remains endemic in parts of the region.^[11][5][9]
2. Of a plant or animal, native to and found only in a particular area; indigenous.^[11][5][9]
3. Typical of or widespread in a particular group, field or setting: corruption endemic in the old regime.^[11][9]

Noun

1. An endemic disease.^[11][5][9]
2. An endemic species or organism.^[11][5][3]

Word family

• endemically
• endemism
• endemicity
• nonendemic

Related words

• ecdemic
• epidemic
• pandemic
• democracy
• demotic
• deme

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
6. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
11. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
12. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
13. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press