virulent

The story

1. French · derived fromvirulent
2. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*wisós“poison; slime; fluidity”
3. Latin · derived fromvīrulentus“poisonous”
4. Middle English · inherited fromvirulent“leaking or seeping pus, purulent; (of putrefaction) extremely severe (sense uncertain)”
5. English todayvirulent

PIE word *wisós From Middle English virulent (“leaking or seeping pus, purulent; (of putrefaction) extremely severe (sense uncertain)”) [and other forms], borrowed from Latin vīrulentus (“poisonous”), from vīrus (“poison; venom; slime, slimy liquid; stinking smell; nasty taste”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *wisós (“poison; slime; fluidity”)) + -ulentus (suffix meaning ‘abounding in, full of’, forming adjectives). Sense 4 (“of a pathogen: replicating within its host cell, then immediately causing it to undergo lysis”) is derived from French virulent, which was first used in this sense by the French biologist François Jacob (1920–2013) and his co-authors in a 1953 article.

Words from the same roots

First known use, by meaning

• from 1953 Of a pathogen: replicating within its host cell, then immediately causing it to undergo lysis.