Most of us are fortunate to dwell in some land that is run by governments described with three words: Liberal Democratic Republic. Let’s ignore the first and third words for today and focus on the second – Democratic – since it will help us address the hottest topic in the world these days, the Corona Virus, and start us on the path to decode the difference between the two similar and frequently heard words: Epidemic and Pandemic. [1]
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As the English language evolves ever more rapidly many words have been discarded on the wayside. They languish there – grass and debris covering them, yet not quite dead – calling out from time to time to passersby. “Use me! Use me! I’m perfect for what you want to say.” Most of us usually ignore them. Our minds and vocabularies have moved on. Or we’re rightfully afraid that no one will understand us; or they’ll think we are pretentious. These lonely plaintive words get scant attention. They lived vibrant lives once. Occasionally we stumble across a few in an old text, or perhaps in a more contemporary passage tapped out by a witty writer; one equipped with either an English Degree, or a thesaurus. Or both. Or me.
Other words remain but get morphed so mischievously that they now mean something quite different. For example, Jealous and Envious – and their cousins: Jealousy & Envy. Until recently, these used to mean pretty much the exact opposite of each other. Jealousy meant to aggressively guard what you have. And envy meant to covet what somewhat else has. [e.g.: The jealous girlfriend imagined the envy of her friends every single waking moment. And why is it always the jealous girlfriend, not the jealous boyfriend?].
Anyhow, now it seems acceptable that Jealous should always mean what Envious used to mean. And Envy seems to have all but vanished from modern lexicon, left on the side of that road of language evolution. [Random person: “I’m so jealous of your trip to the Bahamas.” —
Envious, in a faint Whoville voice: “Use me! use me! I’m perfect for you!”]
Back to square one for today: Democracy. The -cracy ending simply means a form of government, or a ruling structure. Just think of theocracy, bureaucracy, and aristocracy and you pretty much get the idea.[2] The first part tells you who has the power. In the painful-to-watch, but occasionally funny, movie “Idiocracy” the idiots ran the world.
In Democracy, the people have the power. Demos is Greek for “the people.” This also gives us a key to the words of the day: Epidemic and Pandemic. -Demic: Something that is of the people, or affects the people.
There are some other unrelated words that end in -demic, and this moment is propitious for a note of caution: the -ic ending can confuse us, because it means “having to do with.” For example, “academic” is only faintly related to ‘demos’, or the people. Here the -ic indicates it has to do with “academy’; which also comes directly from Greek. Academy: It was a public garden, as in a place where Plato would conduct his classes (which does indeed have to do with the people). But the word “academic” arrived late in English’s evolution, around the 16th century, from “academy.” That was long after academy had anything to do with public gardens, and everything to do with education – I guess thanks to Plato, and other Greek academics.
Back to “epidemic” and “pandemic”, which sound so much alike, and whose meanings are so similar, that they are often used interchangeably. That’s Okay, I suppose, as the rules in English fade away and sometimes appear in new places. But in these times of COVID-19 – or Wuhan Virus, or SARS-Cov-2, or 2019-nCoV, or whatever you want to call it (maybe “the big panic”, or the great Toilet Paper Shortage of 2020) – it might be a bit useful to know the difference between “epidemic” and “pandemic.”
For “epidemic” go to the prefix – “epi-“ – and think “epicenter.” Epi- means having to do with a specific, singular location. Think about when a significant earthquake occurs; among the first two details reported are the magnitude and the epicenter. Not just “how strong?”, but also what specific location on the earth’s surface is directly above the earthquake’s focus? That’s Epi-.
So, “epidemic” is something that has to do with “the people” and is fairly local. Limited to a geographic location. When the COVID-19 virus first appeared, it was clearly an epidemic. Limited to Wuhan province.
Outbreaks don’t have to be viral or microbial to be epidemic. There have been, sadly, epidemics of suicide in some school districts, and epidemics of avocado accidents at some emergency rooms. “Epidemic” doesn’t even have to be medical in nature – although usually people use it that way. At my place of employment for some 34 years the misuse of the word “adverse” was epidemic among management. Yes, I cringed, but that was neither the time nor place to correct my superiors. The main thing is: epidemic is some phenomenon related to people that you can draw a circle around and say “it’s limited to this region.”
By now you can guess that “Pandemic” is an epidemic that is no longer limited to a region. The prefix “pan-“ simply meaning all, or everything. Long ago, a few hundred million years ago, all of earth’s landmass was co-joined and contiguous. You’ve heard scientists and geologists refer to that single continent as “Pangea” (suffix as a slightly modified “Gaia”, meaning earth).
Or for Pandemic, thick Pan, as in Pandora’s Box: all the sickness and troubles that could plague the world are set free. Such pandemonium was no longer quarantined within her box, spreading to all of mankind. Truly one of the most evil gifts ever given, even if it was mythology.
And of course, you can guess that the COVID-19 outbreak is now well beyond epidemic, having graduated to pandemic status. I think the CDC defines pandemic as three or more separate geographic locations. Continents surely qualify as separate locations. So, pandemic? We’re there.
Another appropriate word of that day – one with identical letters at the beginning, but a totally different origin – is PANIC. Empty shelves of toilet paper; stock prices losing 10%, then20% of value in a few days. Is this panic? Probably. We recognize the -IC ending as “having to do with.” But in PANIC, what is Pan? Students of Greek mythology and chaos (or readers of Tom Robbins) will love this. Pan is the god of the wild: the woods, the hills, the un-tamed places. When Pan was disturbed his shouts would terrify those who heard it. Any weird or unexplainable sound heard outside the cities and villages was attribute to the anger of Pan – a very unpredictable fellow. This terror would spread orally among the people, with little apparent reason or validation. Panic: widespread terror with little reasoning. No toilet paper.
For reference: The Spanish Flu of 1918-19 killed 25-50 million people in 25 months. Total deaths are pretty well gauged, but infection rates are a SWAG at best. It’s estimated that one-third of the world’s population might have been infected.[3] Those numbers, or anything close to them, are astounding! That was definitely a pandemic. Especially since world-travel was so limited in those days (outside of travel related to World War 1), it’s hard to imagine how it became so widespread. And deadly. Advanced evolution? Could anything like this happen again?
With any luck, the current pandemic will serve as a warning for those to come.
At this point, I’ll call the Coronavirus a Panic-Pandemic. English has few rules, and the rules permit me to make up a word: Panic-Pandemic. Unplug the TV, turn off the radio, and behave like adults.
Wishing peace and good health (and clean hands and no nose picking) to all of you.
Cheers
Joe Girard © 2020
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Footnotes:
[1] I wrote on Democracy vs Republic some time ago, here: https://girardmeister.com/2013/12/25/democracy-no/
I do plan to publish a study on “Liberal” soon.
[2] Theo = God, or of God.
Theocracy is run by those who are believed to be divinely guided by god.
Bureau and Bureaucaracy: think of an office.
A really big slothful office with lots of internal rules and procedures. Full of faceless unelected people fulfilling
government roles. Like the Department of
Motor Vehicles. In a bureaucracy, these
people are in control. Hmmmmm…
Aristocracy: Aristocrats are the wealthy, privileged and upper crust of
society.
[3] Fatality rate of 1.4% from these numbers. That is pretty astoundingly high. (World Pop in 1920 about 1.75 billion, even after the killing fields of WW1).
[finally] – a pretty cool website for etymology (or “how words got their meanings”) is www.etymonline.com