epizootic (ep-uh-zo-OT-ik) adjective

Spreading quickly among many animals.

noun

Such a disease.

[French epizootique, from epi- + Greek zoion animal.]

Author and humorist Mark Twain once observed, “The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.” Open a newspaper or magazine and chances are you’ll read about the frightening “epidemic” of mad cow disease. Of course, it is we who are mad when we feed these herbivore animals body parts of other animals, including other cows, but I digress. With today’s word we know the right term to use when it comes to an animal disease. The root dem(os) in the word epidemic, meaning `people’ is the same root that gave us the word democracy. Here are two other words with their animal equivalents: endemic/enzootic and demography/zoography.