endémie

Forms

endémie f (plural endémies)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek ἔνδημος (éndēmos, “native, of the country”), a learned borrowing taken from the Late Greek phrase with the neuter ἔνδημον (éndēmon) and νόσημα (nósēma, “disease”), “native disease”, and shaped after épidémie.^[2][3][4][5] The TLFi describes it as derived from the Greek adjective with the suffix -ie.^[6] The adjective is formed from ἐν (en, “in”) and δῆμος (dêmos, “district, people”).^[4][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLFi's first record is from 1495, in Thomas Le Forestier's Le régime contre epidimie et pestilence (Rouen), in the medical sense of a disease permanently present in a region.^[6][2]

Semantic evolution

Several dictionaries long dated the word from Ambroise Paré (about 1560), who explains that the ancients called endemie a disease proper and familiar to certain countries.^[4][8][7] Its sense has stayed medical: the habitual presence of a disease in a given region or population.^[2][5] From the 1860s it is also used figuratively of a latent, widespread state of mind; the TLFi dates this use to the Goncourts (1860).^[6][4]

The adjective endémique followed in 1586, with a figurative use from 1808 (à l'état endémique); endémicité (1844) and endémisme (1908) were formed on it.^[2]

Timeline

• 1495 – First record, in Thomas Le Forestier's treatise on the plague.^[6][2]
• c. 1560 – Ambroise Paré defines it.^[4][7]
• 1586 – The adjective endémique appears.^[2]
• 1860 – The Goncourts use it figuratively.^[6]
• 1908 – Endémisme is formed.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (medicine) endemicity: the permanent or habitual presence of a disease in a region or population.^[9][5][10]
2. (medicine) An endemic disease, one that persists in a region, sometimes in a latent state.^[6][4]
3. (figurative, literary) A latent state of mind spread through a group.^[4][6]

Word family

• endémique
• endémicité
• endémisme

Related words

• épidémie
• Ancient Greek ἔνδημος (éndēmos)
• English endemic

Usage notes

Larousse warns against confusing endémie, a disease permanently present in a region, with épidémie, a sudden and temporary spread of a disease.^[10]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c d e f g Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
5. ^ a b c Académie française (1992–2024), Dictionnaire de l'Académie française, 9th ed., Paris: Académie française / Fayard / Imprimerie nationale
6. ^ a b c d e f g Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
7. ^ a b c Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
8. ^ Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF
9. ^ Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
10. ^ a b Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)