virus
see also: Virus
Etymology
Virus
Proper noun
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see also: Virus
Etymology
From Middle English virus, from Latin vīrus, via rhotacism from itc-pro *weizos, from Proto-Indo-European *wisós.
Pronunciation Nounvirus
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: Thesaurus:virus
- 2001, Leslie Iversen, Drugs: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford, page 64:
- Viruses are the smallest and most simplified forms of life.
- (uncountable) A quantity of such infectious agents
- (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.
- (archaic) Venom, as produced by a poisonous animal etc.
- (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.
- (computing, proscribed) Any type of malware.
- (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.
- French: virus informatique
- German: Computervirus
- Portuguese: vírus, vírus de computador
- Russian: ви́рус
- Spanish: virus
virus (viruses, present participle virusing; simple past and past participle virused)
- (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.
Virus
Proper noun
- The taxonomic kingdom made up of the viruses, submicroscopic non-cellular structures consisting of a core of DNA or RNA surrounded by a protein coat, that require a living host cell to replicate, and often cause disease in the host.
This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.002
