| 释义 |
pandemic, a. and n.|pænˈdɛmɪk|
[f. Gr. πάνδηµ-ος of or pertaining to all the people, public, vulgar, f. παν- all + δῆµος people, populace: in sense 2 repr. Gr. πάνδηµος ἔρως common, vulgar, or sensual love, as opposed to οὐράνιος the heavenly or spiritual; so πάνδηµος ἀϕροδίτη the earthly or human Venus, etc. Cf. Plato Symp. 180 E.]
A. adj.
1. General, universal. esp. Of a disease: Prevalent over the whole of a country or continent, or over the whole world. Distinguished from epidemic, which may connote limitation to a smaller area.
1666Harvey Morb. Angl. i. 2 Some [diseases] do more generally haunt a Country..whence such diseases are termed Endemick or Pandemick. 1799Hooper Med. Dict., Pandemic, a synonim of Epidemic. 1873Mrs. Whitney Other Girls xxviii, It is absolutely exceptional; it will never be pandemic. 1892Times 2 Sept. 9/1 We are face to face with a pandemic outbreak of cholera similar to those which fell upon Europe in 1830, 1847, 1853, and 1866.
2. Of or pertaining to vulgar or sensual love.
a1822Shelley Pr. Wks. (1888) II. 67 That Pandemic lover who loves rather the body than the soul is worthless. 1883Pall Mall G. 8 Sept. 5/1 It is the Pandemic not the Heavenly goddess whose praises he chants.
B. n. A pandemic disease: see A. 1.
1853Dunglison Med. Lex., Pandemic,..an epidemic which attacks the whole population. 1876tr. Wagner's Gen. Pathol. (ed. 6) 141 An epidemic exists in one community only,..but in its greater extension, over a whole land, it is called a pandemic. 1899Allbutt's Syst. Med. VI. 192 Nearly all of our knowledge of thrombosis in influenza dates from the pandemic of 1889–90. |