>From OED online.
[a. L. vrus slimy liquid, poison, offensive odour or taste. Hence also F.,
Sp., Pg. virus.
In Lanfranc's Cirurgie (c 1400) 77 the word, explained as 'a thin venomy
quitter', is merely taken over from the Latin text.]
1. Venom, such as is emitted by a poisonous animal. Also fig.
2. Path. a. A morbid principle or poisonous substance produced in the
body as the result of some disease, esp. one capable of being introduced
into other persons or animals by inoculations or otherwise and of developing
the same disease in them. Now superseded by the next sense.
b. Pl. viruses. An infectious organism that is usu. submicroscopic, can
multiply only inside certain living host cells (in many cases causing
disease) and is now understood to be a non-cellular structure lacking any
intrinsic metabolism and usually comprising a DNA or RNA core inside a
protein coat (see also quot. 1977).
Formerly referred to as filterable viruses, their first distinguishing
characteristic being the ability to pass through filters that retained
bacteria.
c. colloq. A virus infection.
3. fig. A moral or intellectual poison, or poisonous influence. Also in
weakened use, an infectious fear, anxiety, etc.
4. Violent animosity; virulence.
5. attrib. and Comb., as (sense 2b) virus disease, infection, particle;
virus-carried, -containing, -free, -induced, -infected, -like adjs.; virus
pneumonia, pneumonia caused by a virus rather than a bacterium.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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APPENDED FROM ADDITIONS 1993
virus, n.
Add: [2.] d. Computing. Any sequence of code (esp. one capable of
being inserted in other programs) which when executed causes itself to be
copied into other locations, and which is therefore capable of propagating
itself within the memory of a computer or across a network, usually with
deleterious results. See also computer virus s.v. *COMPUTER n. 3.
Matt
--
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Florian Ernst [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Sent: Wednesday, 27 August 2003 3:25 AM
> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Subject: OT: virus (was: ssh tunneling)
>
>
> On Tuesday 26 August 2003 03:40, Colin Watson wrote:
>
> > On Tue, Aug 26, 2003 at 02:01:05AM +0200, Arnt Karlsen wrote:
> >> ..no rule witout exeption: these 2 minutes _are_ useful in
> tarpits,
> >> to help slow vira propagation:
> >
> > That's a new plural of "virus" to me ...
> >
> > ["viri" and "virii" are both wrong. The first is made up by
> assuming
> > that "virus" is a Latin masculine second declension noun,
> which it's
> > not (it's neuter), and "viri" is actually the plural of "vir" and
> > means "men". The second is just utterly weird, though strangely
> > popular, and is constructed on top of a made-up second declension
> > noun, "virius". "vira" is probably better than anything
> else, because
> > at least it's neuter, but really seems more like the plural of
> > "virum". Anyway, there are no recorded instances of a Latin
> plural of
> > "virus", because its meaning back then was abstract and not
> something
> > you could really pluralize. The only English plural of the word is
> > simply "viruses".
> >
> > This concludes today's pedantry.]
>
> Sorry for being late, just some more pedantry:
>
> virus, -i n. (no plural)
> Coming from old-indian višám via old-greek viros (sorry,
> don't know how to enter the correct letters and accents) into
> latin. The greek word means simply "venom / poison", whereas
> the latin word can be translated as "slime", "poison", or as
> a metaphor for "slaver / foam / venom" (compare Vergilius:
> destillat ab inguine virus), the old-indian word on the other
> hand just had an abstract meaning. I'd think the English
> plural is "viruses", in German at least it is "Viren", and
> nothing else ;)
>
> Thanks to Mr. Schüller and Ms. Altenburg for six years of
> boring Latin lesson, and no, I still don't think Caesar was a
> great man.
>
> Back to work,
> sorry for pedantry,
> Flo
>
>
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