Etymology

virus

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Today it means: A submicroscopic, non-cellular structure that consists of a core of DNA or RNA surrounded by a protein coat, that requires a living host cell to replicate, and that sometimes causes disease in the host organism (such agents are often classed as nonliving infectious particles and less often as microorganisms). Full definition →

Middle English virus ← Latin vīrus ← Proto-Italic *weizos
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*wisós“fluidity, slime, poison”
  2. Proto-Italic · derived from*weizos
  3. Latin · derived fromvīrus“poison, slime, venom”
  4. Middle English · inherited fromvirus
  5. English todayvirus

PIE word *wisós Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *weys- Proto-Indo-European *wisós Proto-Italic *weizos Latin vīrusbor. Middle English virus English virus From Middle English virus, from Latin vīrus (“poison, slime, venom”), via rhotacism from Proto-Italic *weizos, from Proto-Indo-European *wisós (“fluidity, slime, poison”). First use in the computer context by David Gerrold in his 1972 book When HARLIE Was One.

Words from the same roots

Latinvīrus all →

medusavirusvirid

Proto-Indo-European*wisós all →

virulentvirid

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.