A.Word.A.Day --zoonosis

A.Word.A.Day

Home

Aug 17, 2020

This week’s theme
This pandemic in five words

This week’s words
zoonosis
fomites
asymptomatic
Typhoid Mary
vaccinate

Pandemics transmitted by eating animals

Infographic: Fangpila / Wikimedia

Previous week’s theme
Characters related to slavery who have become words in the English language

A.Word.A.Day

with Anu Garg

These are times that show that the tiniest can bring the mightiest to their knees. It doesn’t go away if you pretend it’s gone. It’s something you can’t scare with bluster. This is one thing you can’t kill with guns. Some of the biggest threats can only be contained if we all work together.

At any time, and especially in these strange times, let’s follow the advice of experts in medicine and epidemiology, people who have dedicated their lives to helping people live and live better.

The epidemic... this too shall pass, as the saying goes, but to make that happen let’s cooperate: wear our masks. It’s the least we can do.

How have you been? Your family? Your community? Share below or email us at words@wordsmith.org (include your location: city, state, country).

zoonosis

PRONUNCIATION:

(zo-AHN-uh-sis, zo-uh-NOH-sis)

MEANING:

noun: Any disease that can be transmitted from animals to humans.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Greek zoo- (animal) + nosos (disease). Earliest documented use: 1873.

NOTES:

It’s too late now. The COVID-19 has already jumped from animals to humans. Let’s not make it jump from humans to humans. So, let’s wear a mask when in a public place.

USAGE:

“Disease control had been studied there since the founding ... various zoonoses, like the Marburg virus, that move from monkey to human.”
Karen Joy Fowler; We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves; Penguin; 2013.

See more usage examples of zoonosis in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

I have always supported measures and principles and not men. I have acted fearless and independent and I never will regret my course. I would rather be politically buried than to be hypocritically immortalized. -Davy Crockett, frontiersman, soldier, and politician (17 Aug 1786-1836)

We need your help

Help us continue to spread the magic of words to readers everywhere

Donate

Subscriber Services
Awards | Stats | Links | Privacy Policy
Contribute | Advertise