virus

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A tiny living agent that causes disease by spreading inside the cells of a living host.

   The flu is caused by a virus.

2. 2
   noun

   An illness caused by such an agent.

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

3. 3
   noun

   A harmful computer program that copies itself and spreads between computers, often damaging data.

   A virus infected every file on the hard drive.

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.

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