patient zero

名词 n.
中文释义

英文释义

名词 n.
  1. The initial patient in the population of an epidemiological investigation.
    — When epidemiologists trace the evolution of a disease, they look for the first individual known to have contracted it, who is given the inglorious lavel "Patient Zero". For example, the official Patient Zero for the AIDS epidemic was a South African man who died in 1959 (though it is suspected that the disease originated as early as the 1920s.
  2. The source or origin of something. figuratively,informal
    — Danny Boyle, patient zero of the zombie revival, reviews The Walking Dead.

词形变化

patient zeros plural patient zeroes plural patients zero plural patient 0 alternative

词源

Originally patient O (standing for out of California), referring to Gaëtan Dugas, a superspreader of AIDS who was at the time erroneously believed to have introduced the virus to the United States. The letter O was later misinterpreted as a zero.
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