virus

Meaning

1. A submicroscopic, non-cellular structure consisting of a core of DNA or RNA surrounded by a protein coat, that requires a living host cell to replicate, and often causes disease in the host organism; such agents are often classed as nonliving infectious particles and less often as microorganisms.
2. A quantity of such infectious agents
3. (informal) A disease caused by such an infectious agent; a viral illness.
4. Venom, as produced by a poisonous animal etc.
5. A type of malware which can covertly transmit itself between computers via networks (especially the Internet) or removable storage such as disks, often causing damage to systems and data; also computer virus.
6. Any type of malware.
7. Any malicious or dangerous entity that spreads from one place or person to another.

Frequency

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈvaɪɹəs/

Inherited from Middle English

virus

In summary

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.

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