Virus-viri et viri-virorum

[Geoff Read]

Curtis Clark:
> Another post supported what I have heard (and unfortunately have no
> reference for): that "virus" is a coined English word, from "virulent",
> and that the homonymy with the Latin is convenient, but not intended.

I'm not sure you can separate the origins of virulent and virus, but no
matter. Virus the disease agent does come from the Latin word for
poison. In 1898 one Professor Beijerinck of Delft, working on tobacco
disease, extracted an infectious clear 'liquid'  which he named a virus in
the sense of a poison (from Gordon Rattray Taylor's "The Science of
Life"). This was the tobacco mosaic virus.

Also I have a copy of the 1958 taxonomic code entitled "International
code of nomenclature of Bacteria and VIRUSES." It's official - viruses,
like it or lump it.


--
   Geoff Read <gread at actrix.gen.nz>