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ZOONOSIS

Posted: Wed Jun 19, 2013 12:53 pm
by Slava
Here's the missing word of the day from yesterday:

• zoonosis •

Pronunciation: zo-ah-nê-sis • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Noun

Meaning: From its structure (see Word History) we would expect this word to mean simply "animal disease", but it refers only to those animal diseases that may be transmitted to humans, such as rabies, the plague, cowpox, and malaria.

Notes: Like all English words ending on sis (crisis, basis, analysis), the plural of this word is formed by replacing the -sis with -ses: zoonoses. The first S changes to T in the adjective: zoonotic, another common occurrence in English: analysis - analytic, necrosis - necrotic, and so on.

In Play: I'll admit we don't find many places to use this word, but I still find it cool: "I'm surprised Luella hasn't picked up some zoonosis from all those cats she keeps in her house." Just be careful when you use this word that you are not misunderstood: "No, when I said my son is a zoonosologist, I didn't mean he noses around zoos, I meant that he studies zoonoses, diseases passed from animals to people."

Word History: Today's Good Word is a Greek compound made up from zoon "animal, living being" + nosos "disease". We know little about the origin of nosos and it occurs in only a few other words: nosology "the classification of diseases" and nosophobia "the fear of diseases" are probably the most widely used. Zoo-, the root of zoon, appears in many words, including zoology [zo-ah-lê-jee], zoolatry "the worship of animals", and zoo itself, which should be pronounced [zo] but isn't. This word started its journey as gweiw-, a root with a G that often became Z, as it did in Greek, or something similar, as in Russian zhit' "to live" (zhivu "I live"). In Latin the G dropped and the Ws became Vs, producing vivere "to live", the root of which we find in several English words, like vivid and survive. (Let's all thank the lively Mr. William Hupy for submitting this intriguing Good Word and wish him a life without zoonoses.)[/quote]
Commented on here.

Re: ZOONOSIS

Posted: Wed Jun 19, 2013 3:18 pm
by MTC
The Many-Worlds theory of Quantum Mechanics in action:

Professor: So is that clear now, class? When gwray posted "ZOONOSIS" the Universe split into two parts. We'll call one "gwray world," the other "Slava world." Neither world knows about the other.

Class: We get it. So a person in gwray world can say something inconsistent with his twin in Slava world?

Professor: Right.

Class: And each would be real and valid?

Professor: Correct.

Class: But how does Slava know about gwray world if neither world knows about the other?

Professor: That only happens in science fiction, class.
You'll have to ask Slava.

Class: Hey, Slava!

See http://science.howstuffworks.com/innova ... icide3.htm

Re: ZOONOSIS

Posted: Wed Jun 19, 2013 3:28 pm
by Slava
Dear Professor MTC,

I don't get it.

Re: ZOONOSIS

Posted: Wed Jun 19, 2013 4:04 pm
by MTC
Just remember, Slava, this is Quantum Physics by an English Major. I was poking fun at the chronic problem of two posts on the same word, or more often no post by Dr. G. As for the real Many-Worlds theory, if I understand it correctly, the Universe split into two parallel worlds in response to my question on gwray's post, "Am I correct about these observations?" In one world the observations are correct, in another they aren't. Under the real Many-Worlds theory, your post would not be the parallel world which split off in response to my question. That's poetic licence on my part. Check out the link I left on your post which explains the theory. That may help. Explaining a joke takes away any entertainment value it may have had. Looks like this one really fell flat.

Re: ZOONOSIS

Posted: Wed Jun 19, 2013 8:33 pm
by Perry Lassiter
Under the many worlds theory, T-F only accounts fot two worlds, rather than the infinite number, which includes those in which there is no truth, those in which there is no falsity, and those in which T-F has no meaning. And that doesn't even mention all the probabalistic worlds!

Re: ZOONOSIS

Posted: Thu Jun 20, 2013 6:56 am
by call_copse
In another world Microsoft would have been successful in overcoming Apple in the music player wars, and Zoonosis would be widely recognised as the system for playing Microsoft Zunes.

How's that for obscure? :D