Rampant describes something that is spreading quickly and is hard to control, especially something bad like disease, crime, or rumors. It can also describe animals in heraldry standing on their back legs.
It comes from Old French “ramper,” meaning “to rear up, climb,” related to the Latin root “ram-” for “branching or climbing.” The image of something rearing up or spreading out led to the idea of uncontrolled growth.
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