Volume 12, Number 6—June 2006
Historical Review
2,500-year Evolution of the Term Epidemic
Paul M.V. Martin*
and Estelle Martin-Granel†
and Estelle Martin-Granel†Table
Semantic evolution of the term epidemic
| Stage in evolution | Meaning | Use |
|---|---|---|
| Greek: epi (on) and demos (people) (6th century BC); epidemios used by Homer in the Odyssey | Who is in his country | Nonmedical use |
| Greek: Sophocles and Hippocrates (second half of the 5th century BC) | That which circulates and propagates in a country | First medical use |
| Greek: epidemios established by Hippocrates (430 BC) in the medical sense of a collection of syndromes | Sometimes spreading "on the people" | Epidemic of diarrhea |
| Medieval French: ypidime (1256 and later, epidimie) | Large number of cases of unique, well-characterized disease | Epidemic of cholera |
| 19th century: épidémie (late 18th-century French) and epidemic (18th-century English) | Epidemics caused by a microbe belonging to a given genus and species | Epidemic of cholera due to Vibrio cholerae |
| End of 20th century | Clonal expansion of an epidemic strain, as defined with molecular markers | An epidemic due to V. cholerae El Tor, belonging to a defined ribotype or pulsotype |
