From Robert Youngson
Although Dmitri Ivanovsky discovered viruses in 1892, the word “virus” has been in use in English since at least 1599. It was used to mean a poison or infecting agent of some kind. When the agent causing the tobacco mosaic disease was found to pass through a porcelain filter it was, understandably, called a “filterable virus”. The phrase was soon shortened to “virus”, a word that thus acquired a more specific meaning.
Blandford Forum, Dorset, UK
