virgin soil

noun

1. soil that has not been cultivated before

2. a person or thing that is as yet undeveloped

Example Sentences

Each epidemic has followed a more-or-less predictable sequence: Sudden introduction and rapid spread in “virgin soil” populations, death and suffering, social disruption and culture change.

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The third “virgin soil” epidemic was measles in 1847-48.

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And it started with a “virgin soil” epidemic of a deadly “new” disease spread by droplet infection which had no immediate cure — like the coronavirus.

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He goes on, “When I think of this familiar technology in that way, a lightsail tumbling in sunlight resembles nothing so much as the wings of a dandelion seed sent off by the wind to fertilize virgin soil.”

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In the years preceding the Pilgrims’ arrival, the Native inhabitants of southern New England had been ravaged by what some scientists refer to as a “virgin soil” epidemic.

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