Lyssavirus

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A genus of viruses that are known to cause rabies and similar diseases in mammals
2. a group of RNA viruses that primarily infect the nervous system of their hosts
3. pathogens that can lead to severe neurological disorders and are typically transmitted through bites from infected animals

Etymology: Lyssavirus is a genus name, and its history runs through a Greek word for frenzy. The Greek "lyssa" meant rage or madness, and in medical writing it came to name the rabies disease itself, so a virus that causes rabies took its label from that old term for raging fury. The genus took its name from the rabies virus, the best-known member of the group, and the Latin-style suffix "-virus" marks it as a viral genus, following the naming pattern used for virus groups. The surprise is how the name links an ancient word for mania with a modern taxonomy. Nothing in "lyssa" refers to a virus, which was unknown to the people who first used the Greek term. The modern coinage simply reused a classical word for the frenzied symptoms that had long been associated with the disease.