Etymograph

English

virus

Virus comes from Middle English virus, from Latin vīrus ‘poison, slime’, from Proto-Italic *weizos, from PIE *wisós ‘fluidity, poison’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*wisós1‘fluidity, slime, poison’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*weizos1reconstructed
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEvīrus1‘poison, slime, venom’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500virus1
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1890virus1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English virus
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1890, Aluísio Azevedo: “Brazil, that inferno where every budding flower and every…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*wisósWiktionary, English virus‘fluidity, slime, poison’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*weizosWiktionary, English virusreconstructed
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEvīrusWiktionary, English virus‘poison, slime, venom’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500virusWiktionary, English virus
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1890virusWiktionary, English virus. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1890, Aluísio Azevedo: “Brazil, that inferno where every budding flower and every…”

The story

First use in the computer context by David Gerrold in his 1972 book When HARLIE Was One.

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *weys- ‘to raise, increase’

weasel, whisk, visceral, ooze, woozy, viscera, 7 more

through Latin vīrus ‘poison, slime, venom’

virulent, virion, 2 more

Today it means

noun 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).

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “virus”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *wisós / virus

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