Endemic

Thursday 5^th May 2016

Endemic \ [en-dem-ik] 

adjective, Also, endemical

1. natural to or characteristic of a specific people or place; native; indigenous:

endemic folkways; countries where high unemployment is endemic.

2. belonging exclusively or confined to a particular place:

a fever endemic to the tropics.

noun

3. an endemic disease.

Quote

Although in oceanic islands the number of kinds of inhabitants is scanty, the

proportion of endemic species (i.e. those found nowhere else in the world) is

often extremely large.

Charles Darwin, On the Origin of Species, 1859

Origin

Endemic stems from the New Latin endēmicus, which in turn is formed on the

basis of the Greek dêmos meaning "people." It entered English in the mid-1600’s.

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com