endemic

adj, noun — 5 senses

endemic

adj

UK, US /ɛnˈdɛm.ɪk/

Etymology From Ancient Greek ἐν (en, “in”) + δῆμος (dêmos, “people”) + -ic. Possibly via Ancient Greek ἔνδημος (éndēmos, “among one's people, at home, native”) and/or French endémique. By surface analysis, en- + demic.

1

Native to a particular area or culture; originating where it occurs.

  • The endemic religion of Easter Island arrived with the Polynesian settlers.
2

Especially, Of plants and animals Peculiar to a particular area or region; not found in other places.

  • Kangaroos are endemic to Australia.
  • […] a continental northern Alaskan element, including a series of endemic species and disjuncts that have survived the Pleistocene glaciation in northern Alaska and thus represent relicts of the much warmer Tertiary […]1966 October, Rudolf M[athias] Schuster, The Hepaticae and Anthocerotae of North America: East of the Hundredth Meridian, volume I, New York, N.Y.; London: Columbia University Press, →OCLC, page 4:
3

Especially, Of diseases Prevalent in a particular area or region, persistent within a population.

  • Malaria is endemic to the tropics.
  • 1998, Gillian Catriona Ramchand, Deconstructing the Lexicon, in Miriam Butt and Wilhelm Geuder, eds. “The Projection of Arguments” These problems are endemic to the theory of thematic roles as currently conceived, because the classification it implies simply does not correspond to legitimate linguistic semantic definitions.
1 more example
  • In a country where corruption is endemic, no evidence has been presented that Ms Yingluck took any money from the rice scheme, which in 2012 and 2013 cost Thailand billions of dollars. But a state-appointed committee last year ordered her to pay the fine, finding she was to blame, even though it was government policy.2017 July 26, Lindsay Murdoch, “Yingluck Shinawatra, Thailand's first female PM, faces financial ruin and jail”, in The Sydney Morning Herald;:
Synonyms
native, indigenous, precinctive
Antonyms
alien, introduced, systemic
Derived terms
Balkan endemic nephropathy, coendemic, endemical, endemically, endemicity, holoendemic, hyperendemic, hypoendemic, mesoendemic, microendemic, near-endemic, neoendemic, nonendemic, palaeoendemic, paleoendemic, stenoendemic, subendemic, synendemic, tripledemic
Related terms
ecdemic, endemism, epidemic, pandemic

endemic

noun

Etymology From Ancient Greek ἐν (en, “in”) + δῆμος (dêmos, “people”) + -ic. Possibly via Ancient Greek ἔνδημος (éndēmos, “among one's people, at home, native”) and/or French endémique. By surface analysis, en- + demic.

1

An individual or species that is endemic to a region.

  • The species that appeared as a consequence were endemics; that is, they were found nowhere else in the world.2004, Richard Fortey, The Earth, Folio Society, published 2011, page 34:
2

A disease affecting a number of people simultaneously, so as to show a distinct connection with certain localities.

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.