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From time to time, this space has been devoted to the quirks and quarks of the English language, how it can be devilishly difficult as well as devilishly fun. I also have observed that the language is subject to fads. Words and phrases become catchy and popular and then soon fade away.
There was a time in the business world that it wasn’t enough to just say “that’s right,” it was fashionable to nod your head and say “correct.” It was also deemed more forceful if, instead of saying “correct,” you said “absolutely.”
These days, I think I prefer a simple “yep” or my old favorite; “okeydokey.”
It strikes me that the latest word to become a fad is “pandemic.” The word is absolutely everywhere. It’s become almost synonymous with the bird flu threat, and I’ve seen it applied to other issues as well.
These things used to be called an epidemic, I think. Don’t hear that word anymore at all.
As best I can recall, I first heard “pandemic” a bit over a year ago when the wife and I were in South Africa. I was attending a Rotary meeting and they were talking about the “pandemic of AIDS” in Africa that their club was working to address. Figured it was a South African version of “epidemic” and didn’t give it much thought.
No sooner than we returned home than I heard the word applied to this new strain of flu that had been found. Figured maybe I just hadn’t been paying attention.
Shortly after our return, I was telling some fellow local Rotarians about my visit to the Cape Town club and used my newfound phrase in relation to the AIDS problem. Figured I’d impress them with my new vocabulary. Turns out at least a couple hadn’t heard it before either and questioned me on the difference between a pandemic and an epidemic.
“Don’t know,” was my response. “It’s a new word I heard there.”
Well of course, it’s not so new, I discovered. It was in every old dictionary I could find; been around presumably as long as epidemic. Have to wonder why it’s being used so much now.
Have lately been asking some others if they’ve noticed these plethoric pandemic postulations. (That’s sounds like something Howard Cosell would say. He made “plethora” a faddish word back in the 70’s and I can just hear him weave “pandemic” into the sports world: “Steroid and drug use has reached pandemic proportions on the nation’s fields of glory” or something like that. But I digress.)
Anyway, turns out I’m not alone in noticing this increased use of what seems like a new word.
According to Mr. Webster:
epidemic: “affecting or tending to affect many individuals within a population, community or region at the same time; excessively prevalent.”
pandemic: “occurring over a wide geographic area and affecting an exceptionally high proportion of the population.”
Both can be used as either an adjective and a noun.
It appears a pandemic might be considered worse, or at least more
widely spread, than an epidemic. Hence, it is safe to say we are
experiencing a pandemic pandemic.
by MARK MILLER
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