Endemic

WORD OF THE DAY

endemic / adjective / en-DEM-ik

Definition
1a: belonging or native to a particular people or country
1b: characteristic of or prevalent in a particular field, area, or environment
2: restricted or peculiar to a locality or region
3a: an organism that is restricted or peculiar to a locality or region
3b: an endemic organism

Examples
“Scientists have also documented the presence of Galapagos rails, known locally as pachays, an endemic bird never before reported on this island, on the upper part of Pinzon Island.”
— Julia Jacobo, ABC News, 15 Dec. 2022

Divorce has become so endemic in our society that a whole lore has risen up around it: that divorce is a temporary crisis; that so many children have experienced their parents' divorce that children nowadays do not worry much about it; that in fact it makes things easier, and it is itself a mere rite of passage; that if the parents feel better, so will the children.
—Elisabeth Lasch-Quinn, New Republic, 6 May 2002

Did You Know?
Ever wonder how endemic ended up in the English language?
Endemic made its way into English via French and New Latin and likely has its ultimate origin in the Greek adjective éndēmos, a word with multiple uses, among which is one describing a disease confined to one area.
Éndēmos was formed from en- ( “in”) and a form of the noun dêmos, meaning “district, country, people.”
That word was also key to the formation of the earlier word on which éndēmos was modeled: epidēmia, meaning “disease affecting a large number of individuals.”
English adopted epidemic (also via French) in the early 17th century, but endemic didn’t become...endemic until a century and a half later. The now too-familiar relation pandemic slipped into the language in the mid 17th.
In current use, endemic characterizes diseases that are generally found in a particular area—malaria, for example, is said to be endemic to tropical and subtropical regions—while epidemic indicates a sudden, severe outbreak within that region or group.
Endemic is also used by biologists to characterize plant and animal species that are found only in a given area.