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.

• enPR: vīʹrəs, IPA^(key): /ˈvaɪɹəs/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aɪɹəs

virus (countable and uncountable, plural viruses or (rare) virusses or (rare) vira or (proscribed) viri or (proscribed) virii)

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.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:virus

   • 2001, Leslie Iversen, Drugs: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford, page 64:

     Viruses are the smallest and most simplified forms of life.

   • 2013 May-June, Katie L. Burke, “In the News”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3, page 193:

     Bats host many high-profile viruses that can infect humans, including severe acute respiratory syndrome and Ebola.

2. (uncountable) A quantity of such infectious agents
   • 2006, Norman E. Borlaug, Anthony Cunningham, Jane I. Guyer, Hans R. Herren, Calestous Juma, Akinlawon Mabogunje, Barbara Underwood, Montague Yudelman, chapter 1, in Lost Crops of Africa: Volume 2: Vegetables (U.S. National Research Council Consensus Study Report)‎ (non-fiction), Washington, D.C.: National Academies Press, →DOI, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, archived from the original on 2021-09-02, page xviii:

     Unless professionally inspected, they [plants] may also carry along unseen pests and diseases (particularly small insects and microbes such as virus or bacteria) whose populations might explode catastrophically in new locations.

3. (informal, metonymically) A disease caused by such an infectious agent; a viral illness.

   He's got a virus and had to stay home from school.

4. (archaic) Venom, as produced by a poisonous animal etc.
   • 1890, Aluísio Azevedo, The Slum:

     Brazil, that inferno where every budding flower and every buzzing bluebottle fly bears a lascivious virus.

5. (computing) 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.
   • 2004 November 15, Michael Chapman; Matthew Chapman, “Strong Bad Email #118: virus”, in Homestar Runner‎, spoken by Strong Bad (Matthew Chapman):

     Wait a minute! Is this one of those virus emails?!

6. (computing, proscribed) Any type of malware.
7. (figurative) Any malicious or dangerous entity that spreads from one place or person to another.
   • 2011, Pat Mesiti, The $1 Million Reason to Change Your Mind:

     I am tired of the mind viruses that are crippling people living in the western world — especially in my own nation. Sadly, Australia is becoming known as a nation of whingers.

• (computing): malware

• → Amharic: ቫይረስ (vayräs)
• → Bengali: ভাইরাস (bhairaś)
• → Burmese: ဗိုင်းရပ်စ် (buing:rapc)
• → Dhivehi: ވައިރަސް (vairas)
• → Hindi: वायरस (vāyras)
• → Japanese: バイラス (bairasu)
• → Kannada: ವೈರಸ್ (vairas)
• → Korean: 바이러스 (baireoseu)
• → Lao: ໄວຣັສ (wai rat)
• → Malay: virus
• → Malayalam: വൈറസ് (vaiṟasŭ)
• → Maltese: vajrus
• → Sinhalese: වෛරස (wairasa)
• → Telugu: వైరస్ (vairas)
• → Thai: ไวรัส (wai-rát)
• → Urdu: وائرس

virus (third-person singular simple present viruses, present participle virusing, simple past and past participle virused)

1. (nonstandard, rare) To send or infect an electronic device with a computer virus.

   I'm just going to virus anyone who tries cheating on this game.

• prion

• Plural of virus on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Virus on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Computer virus on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Virus on Wikispecies.Wikispecies

From Latin vīrus.

• IPA^(key): /ˈbiɾus/, [ˈbi.ɾus]

virus m (plural virus)

1. virus

Ultimately from Latin vīrus.

virus (definite accusative virusu, plural viruslar)

1. (medicine) virus
2. (computing) computer virus

• “virus” in Obastan.com.

Borrowed from Latin vīrus.

• IPA^(key): (Central) [ˈbi.ɾus]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic, Valencian) [ˈvi.ɾus]

• Audio

  (file)

virus m (invariable)

1. virus

• viral
• víric

• (Revived Middle Cornish) IPA^(key): [ˈviːrʏs]
• (Revived Late Cornish) IPA^(key): [ˈviːrɪz]

virus m (plural virusys)

1. virus

• Cornish-English Dictionary from Maga's Online Dictionary
• Akademi Kernewek Gerlyver Kernewek (FSS) Cornish Dictionary (SWF) (in Cornish), 2018, published 2018, page 190

Borrowed from Russian вирус (virus).

virus

1. (virology) virus

• “virus”, in Luğatçıq (in Russian)

• vir

Borrowed from Latin vīrus.

• IPA^(key): [ˈvɪrus]

virus m inan

1. (virology) virus (a submicroscopic, non-cellular structure)
2. (computing) virus (a type of computer malware)

• virus in Příruční slovník jazyka českého, 1935–1957
• virus in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého, 1960–1971, 1989
• virus in Akademický slovník cizích slov, 1995, at prirucka.ujc.cas.cz

From Latin vīrus.

virus c or n (singular definite virussen or virusset, plural indefinite virus or virusser or vira, plural definite virussene or virusserne or viraene)

1. virus

From Latin vīrus. Coined in the virological sense by Martinus Beijerinck; the word had been previously used for pathogens, although not for viruses in the modern sense. The computing sense derives from English virus.

• IPA^(key): /ˈviː.rʏs/

• audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: vi‧rus

virus n (plural virussen, diminutive virusje n)

1. (microbiology) virus
2. (computer science) virus (computer virus)

Like most Latin borrowings, this word kept its original Latin gender (neuter); it is one of the few Dutch words ending in -us which is not masculine; cf. also corpus and opus. Marginally, use as a masculine noun is sometimes erroneously encountered, indeed based on the ending.

• viroloog

From Latin vīrus.

• IPA^(key): /ˈʋirus/, [ˈʋirus̠]
• IPA^(key): /ˈʋiːrus/, [ˈʋiːrus̠] (proscribed)
• Rhymes: -irus
• Syllabification^(key): vi‧rus

virus

1. virus
2. (computer security) virus (computer virus)

• “virus”, in Kielitoimiston sanakirja [Dictionary of Contemporary Finnish]‎ (in Finnish) (online dictionary, continuously updated), Kotimaisten kielten keskuksen verkkojulkaisuja 35, Helsinki: Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus (Institute for the Languages of Finland), 2004–, retrieved 2023-07-04

• virsu

Borrowed from Latin vīrus.

• IPA^(key): /vi.ʁys/

• audio

  (file)

virus m (plural virus)

1. virus

• “virus”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Learned borrowing from Latin vīrus (“poison, slime, venom”).

virus m (invariable)

1. virus (pathogen)
2. computer virus

From Dutch virus, from Latin vīrus, from rhotacism from Proto-Italic *weizos, from Proto-Indo-European *wisós (“fluidity, slime, poison”). Doublet of bisa.

• The computing sense is a semantic loan from English virus.

• IPA^(key): [ˈvirʊs]
• Hyphenation: vi‧rus

virus (plural virus-virus, first-person possessive virusku, second-person possessive virusmu, third-person possessive virusnya)

1. virus:
   1. (biology, virology) 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. (computing) computer virus: 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.

• “virus” in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia, Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016.

virus (plural viruses)

1. virus

• virusal

Borrowed from Latin vīrus.

• IPA^(key): /ˈvi.rus/
• Rhymes: -irus
• Hyphenation: vì‧rus

virus m (invariable)

1. (virology) virus

• virus in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana

• IPA^(key): /ˈvirus/

virus m (Latin spelling)

1. virus
   • 2018 February 7, Dora Niyego, “El Antisemitizmo De Oy”, in Şalom‎:

     El antisemitizmo es un prejudizio, komo un virus.

     Antisemitism is a prejudice, like a virus.

Via rhotacism from Proto-Italic *weizos, from Proto-Indo-European *wisós (“fluidity, slime, poison”). Cognates include Sanskrit विष (viṣá), Ancient Greek ἰός (iós), Tocharian B wase, and Middle Irish fí. The neuter gender of this term despite its nominative singular ending in the masculine second-declension -us is possibly a relic of this term's inheritance from a neuter s-stem.[1]

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈu̯iː.rus/, [ˈu̯iːrʊs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈvi.rus/, [ˈviːrus]

vīrus n sg (genitive vīrī); second declension

1. venom (a poisonous substance secreted by animals or plants)
2. a plant- or animal-sourced substance with medicinal or magical properties
3. a liquid element that makes something taste or smell bitter or acrid
   1. (transferred sense) bitterness, acrimony (of speech, manner or disposition)
4. (New Latin) a virus (infectious organism)

Second-declension noun (neuter, nominative/accusative/vocative in -us), singular only.

• There is also the heteroclitic genitive singular vīrūs.
• When used in modern biology with the same meaning of English virus, a plural can be formed using the same suffixes of regular neuters of the 2nd declension (i.e., vīra, vīrōrum, vīrīs, vīra, vīrīs, vīra):[2]

Second-declension noun (neuter, nominative/accusative/vocative plural in -a).

• (poison): venēnum

• “uīrus” on page 2286 of the Oxford Latin Dictionary (2nd ed., 2012)

• "virus", in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• "virus". in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• virus in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• "virus", in William Smith, editor (1854, 1857), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, volume 1 & 2, London: Walton and Maberly

• rivus

From English virus, from Latin vīrus, from rhotacism from Proto-Italic *weizos.

• IPA^(key): /virus/, /vajrəs/

virus (plural virus-virus, informal 1st possessive virusku, 2nd possessive virusmu, 3rd possessive virusnya)

1. virus:
   1. (biology, virology) 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.

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

virus

1. virus

From Latin vīrus.

virus n (definite singular viruset, indefinite plural virus, definite plural virusa or virusene)

1. (biology, virology) virus
2. (computing) virus (computer virus) (see datavirus)

• “virus” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

From Latin virus.

virus n (definite singular viruset, indefinite plural virus, definite plural virusa)

1. (biology, virology) virus
2. (computing) virus (computer virus) (see datavirus)

• “virus” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Borrowed from French virus, Latin vīrus.

• IPA^(key): /ˈvirus/
• Rhymes: -irus
• Hyphenation: vi‧rus

virus n (plural virusuri)

1. virus

vírus m (Cyrillic spelling ви́рус)

1. (medicine) virus (DNA/RNA causing disease)
2. (computing) computer virus

Borrowed from Latin vīrus.

• IPA^(key): /ˈbiɾus/ [ˈbi.ɾus]

• Audio (Colombia):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iɾus
• Syllabification: vi‧rus

virus m (plural virus)

1. virus
2. computer virus

• “virus”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014

From Latin vīrus.

• IPA^(key): /ˈviːrɵs/
• Rhymes: -¹iːrɵs

virus n

1. (biology, virology) virus
2. (computing) computer virus

   Synonyms: datavirus, datorvirus

• antivirus
• virusinfektion
• virussmitta
• virussjukdom
• virusskydd
• virusstam

• viral

• bacill
• bakterie

• virus in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• virus in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• virus in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)

• birus

Unadapted borrowing from English virus, from Latin vīrus. Doublet of bisa and birus.

• (Standard Tagalog) IPA^(key): /ˈvajɾus/ [ˈvaɪ̯.ɾʊs]
  • IPA^(key): (more native-sounding) /ˈbajɾus/ [ˈbaɪ̯.ɾʊs]
  • Rhymes: -ajɾus
• (nonstandard) IPA^(key): /ˈviɾus/ [ˈvi.ɾʊs]
  • IPA^(key): (more native-sounding) /ˈbiɾus/ [ˈbi.ɾʊs]
  • Rhymes: -iɾus
• Syllabification: vi‧rus

virus (Baybayin spelling ᜊᜌ᜔ᜇᜓᜐ᜔)

1. (biology, virology) virus
2. computer virus

• “virus”, in Pambansang Diksiyonaryo | Diksiyonaryo.ph, Manila, 2018