A disease that spreads rapidly through an animal population, similar to an epidemic in humans.
From Greek 'epi' (upon) + 'zoon' (animal) + '-ty' (state or condition). Formed in analogy with 'epidemic' but specifically for animal diseases, becoming common in veterinary terminology in the 19th century.
The word 'epizooty' reveals how scientists create parallel terms for different domains—just as 'epidemic' tracks human disease, 'epizooty' tracks animal disease, showing how language adapts to categorize similar phenomena in nature.
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