Roy writes:

> 'Virus' comes from 'wase', marsh, and 'ios' poison - the last word, from
>  whence comes the plural-forming convention, is indubitably Greek, though
>  'wase' is probably a borrowing from Old English - and thus the word has
>  no real Latin heritage at all.....

That isn't quite correct either. "Virus" was a perfectly good and well
recognized word in Latin. In biology, the word means "the character or nature of the
object described" -- and that's how the Romans used it too, albeit in a
different context.

The word "virus" is related our words "virulent" and "virile" (manly). The
original Latin word from which "virus" is derived is "vir" (man), and is closely
related to our word "venom", which is derived from the Latin "venus" (love).

So when you think of "virus", don't think of "swamp poison" as Roy suggests,
but rather of the "essence" of a man, in the context of the act of love, which
is often venomous.

Wirt Atmar

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