The Evolution of the Word ‘Virus’
Here’s an intriguing question for you: When the word ‘virus’ was first introduced into the English language, what did it signify? To make this a bit easier, let’s turn it into a multiple-choice quiz. Did ‘virus’ originally mean:
- a) venom or poison
- b) violent animosity
- c) semen
- d) an infectious agent?
Many might instinctively choose d), as that is the contemporary meaning of ‘virus’ that we commonly encounter today. A significant number might opt for a), due to the parallels between viral infections and those caused by poisons or toxins. However, I suspect very few would consider choices b) or c).
Surprisingly, c) is the correct answer. Yes, ‘virus’ originally referred to ‘semen’—and yes, that’s the male reproductive fluid.
To truly understand this word, we must delve into its etymology. The term comes from the Latin vīrus, which translates to ‘poisonous secretion,’ ‘venom,’ or more broadly, ‘malignant quality.’ Interestingly, this Latin word was also used in ancient contexts to denote various types of secretions, including those with medicinal or magical properties. Among these secretions were animal semen, and later, human semen, as noted by the early church father Tertullian, who employed the term virus in this sense during the third century.
When ‘virus’ first emerged in English in the late fourteenth century, it retained this original meaning of ‘semen.’ John Trevisa, a somewhat obscure Cornish writer and translator, is not widely known today, yet he ranks as the third most-cited author for the first use of particular words in the Oxford English Dictionary, trailing only Geoffrey Chaucer and the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. Trevisa was the first recorded writer to employ ‘virus’ in an English text around 1398. The context clearly indicates the type of secretion he refers to:
Among þe gentals [i.e., genitals], on hatte þe pyntyl veretrum in latyn, for it is a man his owne membre oþer for virus come ouþt þerof.
Of course, this particular meaning of ‘virus’ has become obsolete in modern English.
By the late sixteenth century, the term began to be used in reference to various types of venom, particularly that produced by the bite of snakes, spiders, or other venomous creatures. Moreover, by this time, the word was also being used metaphorically, as evidenced by a 1599 instance recorded in the OED: ‘You haue […] spit out all the virus and poyson you could conceiue, in the abuse of his […] person.’
In the Victorian era, ‘virus’ was occasionally (though rarely) used to denote violent animosity toward something. This usage aligns well with our tendency to describe someone’s feelings of hatred as ‘venom’ directed at those they dislike.
From the early fifteenth century, shortly after John Trevisa’s initial usage, ‘virus’ also began to refer to pus or other discharges from wounds, and at times, to the agent of infectious diseases.
Amazingly, it wasn’t until the early twentieth century that the term was employed in its modern sense, referring specifically to a microscopic agent that causes pathogenic diseases. Given the relatively recent establishment of germ theory in the nineteenth century, pioneered by figures like Louis Pasteur, it’s not surprising that ‘virus’ took a while to evolve into its current, familiar meaning.
The OED notes that viruses were initially differentiated from other pathogenic agents solely based on their size: they were smaller than bacteria, capable of passing through filters that bacteria could not. Additionally, viruses were not visible through light microscopes. What now defines a virus is its ability to operate only within the living cells of a host organism, characterized by a nucleic acid molecule (either DNA or RNA) encased in a protein coat.
The term ‘virus’ made its debut in the realm of computing in the early 1970s, with its first recorded usage in 1972. A computer virus refers to a program or piece of code that can replicate itself when activated on a new device. Thus, a computer virus resembles a biological virus in its capacity for self-propagation. In his 1975 novel The Shockwave Rider, the British science fiction author John Brunner popularized the concept of a computer ‘virus.’ He also introduced the idea of a ‘computer worm,’ a program designed to sabotage another computer or an entire network.
The phrase ‘to go viral’ emerged from the 1980s concept of ‘viral marketing,’ where information or advertisements were crafted to spread rapidly among large audiences. By 1998, ‘viral campaigns’ were already in use, and the term ‘went viral’ was documented in 2004, as noted by the OED.