Editing Epicenter (section)

==Etymology==
The word is derived from the [[Neo-Latin]] noun ''epicentrum'',<ref>{{Cite web|publisher=Merriam-Webster Dictionary|title=epicenter|year=2009|url=http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/epicenter|access-date=2009-10-19}}</ref> the [[Latinisation (literature)|latinisation]] of the [[ancient Greek]] adjective ἐπίκεντρος ({{transliteration|grc|epikentros}}), "occupying a cardinal point, situated on a centre",<ref>[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3De%29pi%2Fkentros ἐπίκεντρος], Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, ''A Greek-English Lexicon'', on Perseus</ref> from ἐπί (''epi'') "on, upon, at"<ref>[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3De%29pi%2F2 ἐπί], Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, ''A Greek-English Lexicon'', on Perseus</ref> and κέντρον (''kentron'') "[[wikt:center|centre]]".<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20100925151005/http://oxforddictionaries.com/view/entry/m_en_gb0269590#m_en_gb0269590 epicentre], on Oxford Dictionaries</ref> The term was coined by Irish [[seismologist]] [[Robert Mallet]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Filiatrault|first=A.|title=Elements of Earthquake Engineering and Structural Dynamics|publisher=Presses inter Polytechnique|date=2002|edition=2nd|page=1|isbn=978-2-553-01021-7|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zEqHNr4YHkgC&pg=PR7}}</ref>

It is also used to mean "center of activity", as in "Travel is restricted in the Chinese province thought to be the epicentre of the SARS outbreak."<ref>{{cite book|author=Rick Thompson|title=Writing for Broadcast Journalists|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=u_fiOtsJL8UC|year=2004|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-134-36915-7|page=160}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Oltermann|first=P.|title=How to Write|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LMueSHGvPjwC&pg=PA246|year=2009|publisher=Random House|isbn=978-0-85265-138-4|page=246}}</ref> ''[[Garner's Modern American Usage]]'' gives several examples of use in which "epicenter" is used to mean "center". [[Bryan A. Garner|Garner]] also refers to a [[William Safire]] article in which Safire quotes a geophysicist as attributing the use of the term to "spurious erudition on the part of writers combined with scientific illiteracy on the part of copy editors".<ref>{{Cite news|last=Safire|first=William|date=2001-05-06|title=On Language|page=22|work=The New York Times Magazine|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2001/05/06/magazine/the-way-we-live-now-5-6-01-on-language-fulminations.html|access-date=2022-10-17|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221017100755/https://www.nytimes.com/2001/05/06/magazine/the-way-we-live-now-5-6-01-on-language-fulminations.html?searchResultPosition=3|archive-date=2022-10-17}}</ref> Garner has speculated that these misuses may just be "metaphorical descriptions of focal points of unstable and potentially destructive environments."<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FwmQpyibKkAC&pg=PA310|last=Garner|first=B. A.|title=Garner's Modern American Usage|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2009|page=310|isbn=9780199888771}}</ref>