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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Virus \Vi"rus\, noun [L., a slimy liquid, a poisonous liquid, poison, stench; akin to Gr. ? poison, Skr. visha. Cf. {Wizen}, verb (used without an object)]
1. (Med.) Contagious or poisonous matter, as of specific ulcers, the bite of snakes, etc.; -- applied to organic poisons. [Archaic] [1913 Webster +PJC]
2. the causative agent of a disease, . [obsolescent] [PJC]
3. any of numerous submicroscopic complex organic objects which have genetic material and may be considered as living organisms but have no proper cell membrane, and thus cannot by themselves perform metabolic processes, requiring entry into a host cell in order to multiply. The simplest viruses have no lipid envelope and may be considered as complex aggregates of molecules, sometimes only a nucleic acid (DNA or RNA) and a coat protein. They are sometimes viewed as being on the borderline between living and nonliving objects. They are smaller than living cells in size, usually between 20 and 300 nm; thus they pass through standard filters, and were previously referred to as {filterable virus}. The manifestations of disease caused by multiplication of viruses in cells may be due to destruction of the cells caused by subversion of the cellular metabolic processes by the virus, or by synthesis of a virus-specific toxin. Viruses may infect animals, plants, or microorganisms; those infecting bacteria are also called {bacteriophages}. Certain bacteriophages may be non-destructive and benign in the host; -- see {bacteriophage}. [1913 Webster +PJC]
4. Fig.: Any morbid corrupting quality in intellectual or moral conditions; something that poisons the mind or the soul; as, the virus of obscene books.
5. (Computers) a program or segment of program code that may make copies of itself (replicate), attach itself to other programs, and perform unwanted actions within a computer; also called {computer virus} or {virus program}. Such programs are almost always introduced into a computer without the knowledge or assent of its owner, and are often malicious, causing destructive actions such as erasing data on disk, but sometime only annoying, causing peculiar objects to appear on the display. The form of sociopathic mental disease that causes a programmer to write such a program has not yet been given a name. Compare {trojan horse[3]}. [PJC]
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
virus
noun
1: (virology) ultramicroscopic infectious agent that replicates itself only within cells of living hosts; many are pathogenic; a piece of nucleic acid (DNA or RNA) wrapped in a thin coat of protein
2: a harmful or corrupting agency; "bigotry is a virus that must not be allowed to spread"; "the virus of jealousy is latent in everyone"
3: a software program capable of reproducing itself and usually capable of causing great harm to files or other programs on the same computer; "a true virus cannot spread to another computer without human assistance" [syn: {computer virus}]
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
120 Moby Thesaurus words for "virus": acaricide, adenovirus, aerial infection, aerobe, aerobic bacteria, aerobic organism, airborne infection, amoeba, anaerobe, anaerobic bacteria, anaerobic organism, anthelmintic, antibiotic, antiseptic, autotrophic organism, bacillus, bacteria, bacterium, bane, being, bug, bug bomb, carbamate insecticide, carrier, chemosterilant, chlorinated hydrocarbon insecticide, coccus, communicability, contact poison, contagion, contagiousness, contamination, corruption, creature, cryptogenic infection, defoliant, direct infection, disease-producing microorganism, disinfectant, droplet infection, dust infection, echovirus, enterovirus, epidemiology, eradicant, filterable virus, fumigant, fungicide, fungus, genetic individual, germ, germicide, gram-negative bacteria, gram-positive bacteria, hand infection, herbicide, heterotrophic organism, indirect infection, individual, infection, infectiousness, insect powder, insecticide, living being, living thing, microbe, microbicide, microorganism, miticide, mold, morphological individual, nonfilterable virus, ont, organic being, organic chlorine, organic phosphate insecticide, organism, organization, pathogen, pesticide, physiological individual, phytogenic infection, picornavirus, poison, primary infection, protozoa, protozoon, pyogenic infection, rat poison, reovirus, rhinovirus, rickettsia, roach paste, roach powder, rodenticide, secondary infection, spirillum, spirochete, spore, staphylococcus, stomach poison, streptococcus, subclinical infection, systemic, systemic insecticide, taint, toxic, toxicant, toxin, trypanosome, vector, venin, venom, vermicide, vibrio, waterborne infection, weed killer, zoogenic infection, zooid, zoon
From Jargon File (4.3.1, 29 Jun 2001) [jargon]:
virus n. [from the obvious analogy with biological viruses, via SF] A cracker program that searches out other programs and 'infects' them by embedding a copy of itself in them, so that they become {Trojan horse}s. When these programs are executed, the embedded virus is executed too, thus propagating the 'infection'. This normally happens invisibly to the user. Unlike a {worm}, a virus cannot infect other computers without assistance. It is propagated by vectors such as humans trading programs with their friends (see {SEX}). The virus may do nothing but propagate itself and then allow the program to run normally. Usually, however, after propagating silently for a while, it starts doing things like writing cute messages on the terminal or playing strange tricks with the display (some viruses include nice {display hack}s). Many nasty viruses, written by particularly perversely minded {cracker}s, do irreversible damage, like nuking all the user's files.
In the 1990s, viruses became a serious problem, especially among Windows users; the lack of security on these machines enables viruses to spread easily, even infecting the operating system (Unix machines, by contrast, are immune to such attacks). The production of special anti-virus software has become an industry, and a number of exaggerated media reports have caused outbreaks of near hysteria among users; many {luser}s tend to blame _everything_ that doesn't work as they had expected on virus attacks. Accordingly, this sense of 'virus' has passed not only into techspeak but into also popular usage (where it is often incorrectly used to denote a {worm} or even a {Trojan horse}). See {phage}; compare {back door}; see also {Unix conspiracy}.
From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03) [foldoc]:
virus (By analogy with biological viruses, via SF) A program or piece of code written by a {cracker} that "infects" one or more other programs by embedding a copy of itself in them, so that they become {Trojan horses}. When these programs are executed, the embedded virus is executed too, thus propagating the "infection". This normally happens invisibly to the user. A virus has an "engine" - code that enables it to propagate and optionally a "payload" - what it does apart from propagating. It needs a "host" - the particular hardware and software environment on which it can run and a "trigger" - the event that starts it running. Unlike a {worm}, a virus cannot infect other computers without assistance. It is propagated by vectors such as humans trading programs with their friends (see {SEX}). The virus may do nothing but propagate itself and then allow the program to run normally. Usually, however, after propagating silently for a while, it starts doing things like writing "cute" messages on the terminal or playing strange tricks with the display (some viruses include {display hacks}). Viruses written by particularly antisocial {crackers} may do irreversible damage, like deleting files. By the 1990s, viruses had become a serious problem, especially among {IBM PC} and {Macintosh} users (the lack of security on these machines enables viruses to spread easily, even infecting the operating system). The production of special {antivirus software} has become an industry, and a number of exaggerated media reports have caused outbreaks of near hysteria among users. Many {lusers} tend to blame *everything* that doesn't work as they had expected on virus attacks. Accordingly, this sense of "virus" has passed into popular usage where it is often incorrectly used for a {worm} or {Trojan horse}. See {boot virus}, {phage}. Compare {back door}. See also {Unix conspiracy}. [{Jargon File}] (2003-06-20)
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