epidemic
https://gyazo.com/cc51d5efc83a5b7b3b602a8a941a7e1b
source: ［Image - 694837］ | Space☆Dandy | Know Your Meme
noun
a widespread occurrence of an infectious disease in a community at a particular time:
(伝染病などの)流行; 伝染病(→ plague, pandemic)
e.g. a flu epidemic.
a disease widely occurring in a community at a particular time.
a sudden, widespread occurrence of a particular undesirable phenomenon:
(事件などの)続出, 頻発
e.g. an epidemic of violent crime.
adjective
of the nature of an epidemic:
〖名詞の前で〗流行［伝染］性の〈病気〉; (一般的に)流行の, はやりの; 〈病気が〉蔓延して
e.g. shoplifting has reached epidemic proportions. Compare with endemic, pandemic, epizootic.
DERIVATIVES
epidemically adverb
USAGE
A disease that quickly and severely affects a large number of people and then subsides is an epidemic: throughout the Middle Ages, successive epidemics of the plague killed millions. Epidemic is also used as an adjective: she studied the causes of epidemic cholera. A disease that is continually present in an area and affects a relatively small number of people is endemic: malaria is endemic in (or to) hot, moist climates. A pandemic is a widespread epidemic that may affect entire continents or even the world: the pandemic of 1918 ushered in a period of frequent epidemics of gradually diminishing severity. Thus, from an epidemiologist's point of view, the Black Death in Europe and AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa are pandemics rather than epidemics.
ORIGIN
early 17th century (as an adjective): from French épidémique, from épidémie, via late Latin from Greek epidēmia ‘prevalence of disease’, from epidēmios ‘prevalent’, from epi ‘upon’ + dēmos ‘the people’.