virus English · revision 5338

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=borrowing|attested=1392|origins=la vīrus}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA: UK /ˈvaɪə.rəs/, US /ˈvaɪ.rəs/^(Roach et al. 2011)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[bor|la|vīrus|t=poison, sap of plants, slimy liquid]],^(Etymonline)^(Barnhart 1988)^(SOED 2002) from Proto-Italic *weis-o-, probably from [[ine-pro|*ueis-|t=to melt away, flow]], used of foul fluids,^(Etymonline) the source also of Sanskrit viṣá- “poison”, Greek ios “poison” and Old Irish fí “poison”.^(Barnhart 1988)^(Etymonline)^(Hoad 1986) It is related to [[virulent]].^(Hoad 1986)^(Cresswell 2021)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ A poisonous substance: 1392 in Barnhart, the late 14th century in Etymonline, at first in medicine the discharge from a wound or sore.^(Barnhart 1988)^(Etymonline) The venom of a snake is from 1599 in the OED.^(OED 1989)^(Cresswell 2021)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ By 1728 it meant the contagious matter of venereal disease, and by the 1790s an agent produced in the body of an infected person that could infect others.^(Etymonline)^(Barnhart 1988)^(OED 1989) Moral or intellectual poison is from 1778.^(OED 1989) The modern scientific sense, a submicroscopic infectious organism, dates from the 1870s and 1880s, and the word was applied to such organisms as they were discovered in the late 1890s.^(Etymonline)^(OED 1989)^(Cresswell 2021) A virus infection is from 1954,^(OED 1989) the adjective ''viral'' from 1948,^(Barnhart 1988) and the computer virus from 1972.^(Etymonline)^(OED 1989)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 1392 – a poisonous substance.^(Barnhart 1988)

+ * 1599 – snake venom.^(OED 1989)

+ * 1728 – a disease agent.^(OED 1989)^(Barnhart 1988)

+ * 1880 – a submicroscopic organism.^(OED 1989)

+ * 1972 – a computer virus.^(Etymonline)^(OED 1989)

+

+ ==Modern meaning==

+ ===Noun===

+ # A very small infectious agent, made of [[RNA]] or [[DNA]] in a protein coat, that can multiply only inside living cells.^(AHD)^(Collins 2023)

+ # ''(informal)'' A disease caused by a virus.^(AHD)^(Collins 2023)

+ # A harmful or corrupting influence.^(AHD)^(Collins 2023)

+ # ''(computing)'' A program that copies itself into other programs and can damage a computer.^(AHD)^(Collins 2023)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[viruslike]]

+ * [[coxsackievirus]]

+ * [[cytomegalovirus]]

+ * [[viral]]

+ * [[virion]]

+ * [[viroid]]

+ * [[antiviral]]

+ * [[adenovirus]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[virulent]]

+ * [[ooze]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}