virulent

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English virulent, also verelent,^[2][3] borrowed from Latin vīrulentus (“poisonous, full of poison”),^[4][5][6][7] from vīrus (“slimy liquid, poison, stench”)^[8][9][5] and the suffix -ulentus,^[3] and so related to virus.^[9][6][10] The OED compares French virulent, Italian virulento, Spanish virulento and Portuguese virulento,^[4] and Johnson gave both the French and the Latin word as its source.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of wounds and ulcers, full of corrupt or poisonous matter, discharging pus: about 1400, in the Middle English translation of Lanfranc's Science of Surgery.^[4][2][6][9] The Oxford Dictionary of English likewise says that the word first described a poisoned wound.^[10]

Semantic evolution

From wounds the word passed to diseases, which from 1563 were called virulent when extremely malignant or violent.^[4][9] From 1577 it was also used of serpents, plants and substances that were strongly poisonous,^[4][9] although the Shorter Oxford dates the poisonous sense to the early 16th century.^[12] The medical sense of wounds died out in the early 18th century.^[4][12] The figurative sense "violently bitter, spiteful, full of enmity" is attested from about 1600:^[9] the OED has it of feelings and actions from 1607, of people from 1613 and of speech or writing from 1631,^[4] while the Shorter Oxford dates it to the early 16th century too.^[12] Johnson (1755) gave two senses, "poisonous; venomous" and "poisoned in the mind; bitter; malignant".^[11] Smollett used it in 1771 of something unpleasantly strong,^[4] and in the 20th century microbiology applied it to micro-organisms able to cause disease, and since 1953 to phages that destroy their host cell at once.^[4][12] A rare verb virulent, to make virulent, is recorded in 1661.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 1400 – of wounds or ulcers, full of corrupt or poisonous matter (obsolete by 1728).^[4][2]
• 1563 – of diseases, extremely malignant or violent.^[4]
• 1577 – of serpents, plants or substances, strongly poisonous.^[4]
• 1607 – of feelings and actions, violently bitter or spiteful.^[4][9]
• 1631 – of speech or writing, full of acrimony.^[4]
• 1771 – unpleasantly violent or strong.^[4]
• 1953 – of a phage, destroying its host cell immediately after replicating in it.^[4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of a disease or infection: severe, spreading quickly and harmful: a virulent outbreak of measles.^[8][7][4]
2. Of a microorganism: highly infective, able to cause serious disease.^[7][12]
3. Extremely poisonous or venomous; deadly.^[8][7][4]
4. Full of bitter hostility or malice: The candidate faced a virulent campaign in the tabloids.^[8][7][4]
5. Objectionably harsh or strong.^[8][4]
6. (microbiology) Of a phage: destroying the host cell soon after replicating within it; lytic rather than lysogenic.^[4][12]
7. (obsolete, c. 1400–1728) Of a wound or ulcer: discharging pus or poisonous matter.^[4][12][2]

Word family

• virulence
• virulently
• unvirulent
• avirulent
• hypervirulent
• nonvirulent
• supervirulent

Related words

• virulency
• virus

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
8. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
12. ^ a b c d e f g Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press