If Grandma thinks you’re coming down with the epizootic, she’ll probably want to put you to bed and bring you a bowl of soup. But what’s an epizootic, anyway? And does being diagnosed with it make you feel better or worse? This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Coming Down with the Epizootic”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hello.
Hiya, who is this?
This is Don Hanlon in Greenwood, Indiana, just outside of Indianapolis.
Hiya, Don.
Hi, Don. What’s going on?
Well, it’s the word epizootic.
Who? The what?
My grandmother used to say if you had a cough or something that you were catching the epizootic.
Okay.
A few years ago I heard that epizootic was the horse plague that went through Indiana before World War I.
And then recently I was reading Justinian’s Flea by William Rosen, and there’s the word.
I’d never seen it in print before.
Oh, wow.
That must have been fun to see that after hearing your grandmother say that.
And it had a T instead of a D.
-huh.
-huh.
And the phrase is during the times between epizootics or a year without an epizootic.
Right.
That’s so interesting that your grandmother picked up on that because, you know, at least as early as the mid-1700s, we see this word that’s pronounced epizootic.
It’s the word you’re talking about, E-P-I-Z-O-O-T-I-C.
Is that the way it was?
Yes, that’s it.
Right, right.
And that’s a word that means a disease afflicting many animals at the same time.
It comes from the Greek word for animal, Don, you know, like, which is zoan.
And you see it in epizootic, E-P-I-Z-O-O-T-I-C.
You also see it in the word for the place where they keep all the animals.
Yes.
Which is?
I thought it was just a made-up word, some kind of a Hoosier slang word or something.
I love it because it sounds like it would be, doesn’t it?
It sounds like a fun word, but it actually comes from this technical term that means a disease afflicting lots of animals.
Lots of the same kind of animal, right?
Right, right, like a whole herd of horses.
So it’s the animal equivalent of epidemic, which usually only refers to people.
Exactly. Exactly. The zoo in epizootic is animal and the demic in epidemic is like the rule of the people, democracy.
Well, thank you very much. I really appreciate that.
Well, it’s good to talk with you, Dawn.
What I want to know is once she diagnosed you with epizootic, did it make you feel better or worse?
It just kind of made you dread what was happening, that somehow this was going to be bad.
Oh, it sounds bad. It does, doesn’t it?
But it sounds like the cure is something delightful.
I don’t know, gin, maybe.
Not on that side of my family.
Oh, okay. Laudanum, then.
Yes.
No? Okay.
Well, Don, thanks so much for calling.
Thank you, Don.
Well, thank you.
Stay well.
Bye-bye.
Bye-bye.
I love this stuff, Martha.
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