endémique

Forms

endémique (plural endémiques)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from French endémie + -ique.^[2][3][4] The TLFi, the GLLF and the Robert dictionaries date it to 1586, in Suau's treatise on the plague;^[2][5][3][6] Bloch–Wartburg give 1608.^[2][5][3][6] The noun, recorded in 1495, is a learned word from Ancient Greek ἔνδημον (éndēmon, “native (disease)”), modelled on épidémie.^[4][2] The Greek word is the neuter form of the adjective meaning “native, of the country”, derived from δῆμος (dêmos, “district, people”).^[4][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Suau's treatise of 1586 on the plague it is a medical term for a disease that stays in one country, and Claude Dariot wrote of maladies endémiques before 1594.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

The figurative sense, “constantly present in a place or milieu”, appears in Cabanis in 1808 and in folie endémique in 1811, and the phrase à l'état endémique became common.^[2][4] Littré also gave a botanical use for genera and families all of whose species grow in one country;^[7] biology now calls endémique, or simply une endémique, a species confined to a small area.^[2][8] Learned derivatives followed: endémicité (1844), endémisme (1908) and endémiquement (1920).^[4]

Timeline

• 1495 – The noun endémie is recorded.^[2][4]
• 1586 – First record of endémique, in Suau.^[2][5]
• 1594 – Claude Dariot writes of maladies endémiques before this year.^[2]
• 1808 – Cabanis uses the word figuratively.^[2][4]
• 1844 – The derivative endémicité appears.^[4]
• 1908 – Endémisme is recorded.^[4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (medicine) Of a disease: endemic, always present in a given region.^[2][8][9]
2. (figurative) Of a harmful social or economic phenomenon: constant, chronique: chômage endémique, à l'état endémique.^[9][8][5]
3. (biology) Of a plant or animal species: confined to a small, well-defined area; also as a noun, une endémique.^[2][8][9]

Word family

• endémicité
• endémisme
• endémiquement

Related words

• endémie
• épidémie
• Ancient Greek ἔνδημος (éndēmos)

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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
3. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ a b c d e Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
6. ^ a b c Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
7. ^ Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
8. ^ a b c d Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ a b c Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)