zymotic

Etymology

From Ancient Greek ζυμωτικός (zumōtikós, “causing fermentation”), from ζυμοῦν (zumoûn).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /zʌɪˈmɒtɪk/

Adjective

zymotic (not comparable)

1. (pathology, now historical) Infectious, contagious, of diseases originally regarded as being caused by a process similar to fermentation.
   • 1997, Roy Porter, The Greatest Benefit to Mankind, Folio Society 2016, p. 394:

     Farr concluded that overcrowding was the main determinant of high mortality from what (following Liebig) he style ‘zymotic diseases’.

2. Of or causing fermentation.