When WHO’s Director-General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, declared COVID-19 a pandemic, he said the word is not one “to use lightly or carelessly”.
“It is a word that, if misused, can cause unreasonable fear, or unjustified acceptance that the fight is over, leading to unnecessary suffering and death,” he noted.
The term has now earned a place in our daily vocabulary. But what does it really mean and where does it come from?
The pandemic-epidemic jargon
According to the , “pandemic refers to an epidemic that has spread over several countries or continents, usually affecting a large number of people”.
The word epidemic denotes “an increase, often sudden, in the number of cases of a disease” exceeding the normal number of cases in the population of a specific area.
The variant of what is ‘normal’ could potentially complicate the classification, especially considering that an outbreak “carries the same definition of epidemic, but is often used for a more limited geographic area”.
If this sounds confusing enough to exclaim “it’s all Greek to me”, you might take consolation in the fact that these terms, “pandemic” and “epidemic” are actually of Greek origin.
And they are not the only ones in our coronavirus vocabulary, says retired educator Thomas Iliopoulos.
For the most part of his 35-year-long working life, the Greek-Australian has researched extensively the Greek etymology of many Latin-derived words, having also completed a Bachelor of Letters specialising in the Greek language at the University of England, NSW.
“The whole world is now talking about this pandemic in a way that the Greek language described it many, many years ago,” he says pointing out that the very same words can be used today to make sense of the coronavirus situation.
Warehouses that were converted to keep the infected people quarantined during the 1918 Influenza pandemic. Source: Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
A linguistic journey traced back to Homer
As academics Paul MV Martin and Estelle Martin-Granel explain in their paper, “pandemic” derives from the Greek word “pandemos”, literally meaning “all the people”, with “pan” (παν) being the word for “all” and the noun “demos” (δήμος) literally translated as “people” but originally meaning “the country”.
“Epidemic” is traced back to the Greek word “epidemios” broken down to the “demos” noun and the preposition “epi” (επί) meaning “on”. So together, “on the people”.
Mr Iliopoulos adds a third dimension in this language equation, putting forward the word “endemic”, meaning that which is specific to people of an area/territory.
“Demos, the common denominator found in these compound terms, which acquire a different meaning according to the prefix used [-pan, -epi, -en], is a very powerful word. Let’s not forget its use in the word democracy, meaning that people are in power.”
Of course, when 'demos' is found in words like epidemic and pandemic, we associate it with the disease. However, this was not always the case.
Greek physician Hippocrates who is known as ‘the father of medicine’, was the first to give the term ‘epidemic’ a medical connotation.
But in its adjective version, the word “epidemios” is believed to have been first used by Homer in his epic tale ‘Odyssey’ back in the 6th century BC.
The meaning was “who is back home”, in their country.
So, did the word epidemic not always denote an illness?
Roman bust of Homer Source: Wikipedia
That’s right. In fact, the word has been used by an array of Greek masterminds including philosopher Plato, comic playwright Aristophanes and historian Thucydides for pretty much anything except diseases. For example, “Epidemios” has been used to refer to persons, rain, rumors, and even war and civil war.
Coming back to Hippocrates, a publication of his clinical notes titled “Epidemics” first established the term in a medical context.
Over many centuries, the word has changed in both form and meaning, giving rise to the Latin term epidemia as well as its French and English adaptations later on, and giving a name to the very discipline concerned with understanding and preventing disease: epidemiology.
The second part of this word is logos (in Greek writing λόγος) with ‘reason’ being one of its variable meanings originally in ancient Greek.
The coronavirus story as a Greek language tale
According to Mr. Iliopoulos, the global COVID-19 outbreak has revealed the wealth of a language heritage, traced back to ancient times and surviving to our days in modern Greek.
He makes a point of how Greek words pop up when we talk about the virus.
“The ‘culprit’ for spreading this all over the world is the airplane, which actually comes from the Greek words ‘ἀήρ,’ (aer) meaning ‘air’ and ‘πλάνος’ (planos) meaning ‘the one who is wandering’.”
The situation the world is currently facing, he adds, is described with the Greek word ‘κρίσις’(krisis) i.e. crisis.
“We have been overwhelmed by panic, in modern Greek πανικός (panikos)” a feeling with linguistic roots traced back to Greek mythology," Mr Iliopoulos explains.
“’Παν’ (Pan) was a deity found in forests. The component -ic is the equivalent -ικος (-ikos) indicating that it belongs to Pan, the god who sparked fear.”
Hiding in the bushes, the demigod was said to find amusement in scaring travellers passing by forest lands.
“Then, you see people flocking to clinics to get a diagnosis.
“Clinic comes from the word ‘κλίνη’ (kline) meaning bed, while 'diagnosis' is broken down to ‘διά’ (dia), that is through, and γνῶσις (gnosis) which is knowledge.”
According to Mr Iliopoulos, the uninterrupted presence of the Greek language over the centuries has once again come to the spotlight in the times of coronavirus.
“It’s as if the pandemic has reminded us of the origin of all these words used to express meaning, as meaning cannot be created with unknown entities.
“That is, without them, we’d be ‘mute’ when trying to describe what is happening.”
