Etymology

myxovirus

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Today it means: Any of a group of RNA viruses of the Orthomyxoviridae and Paramyxoviridae families. Full definition →

Ancient Greek μύξα
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The story

  1. Ancient Greek · derived fromμύξα“mucus”
  2. English todaymyxovirus

From myxo- + virus, from Ancient Greek μύξα (múxa, “mucus”), because they react with mucin (mucoprotein) on the surface of red blood cells.

Words from the same roots

Ancient Greekμύξα all →

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Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.