endemic

Etymology

From Ancient Greek ἐν (en, “in”) + δῆμος (dêmos, “people”). Possibly via ἔνδημος (éndēmos, “among one's people, at home, native”) and/or French endémique.

adj

1. Native to a particular area or culture; originating where it occurs.
   The endemic religion of Easter Island arrived with the Polynesian settlers.
2. (especially of plants and animals) Peculiar to a particular area or region; not found in other places.
   Kangaroos are endemic to Australia.
3. (especially of diseases) Prevalent in a particular area or region.
   Malaria is endemic to the tropics.
   1998, Gillian Catriona Ramchand, Deconstructing the Lexicon, in Miriam Butt and Wilhelm Geuder, eds. “The Projection of Arguments” These problems are endemic to the theory of thematic roles as currently conceived, because the classification it implies simply does not correspond to legitimate linguistic semantic definitions.
   In a country where corruption is endemic, no evidence has been presented that Ms Yingluck took any money from the rice scheme, which in 2012 and 2013 cost Thailand billions of dollars. But a state-appointed committee last year ordered her to pay the fine, finding she was to blame, even though it was government policy. 2017 July 26, Lindsay Murdoch, “Yingluck Shinawatra, Thailand's first female PM, faces financial ruin and jail”, in The Sydney Morning Herald;

noun

1. An individual or species that is endemic to a region.
   The species that appeared as a consequence were endemics; that is, they were found nowhere else in the world. 2004, Richard Fortey, The Earth, Folio Society, published 2011, page 34
2. A disease affecting a number of people simultaneously, so as to show a distinct connection with certain localities.