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To: bigbob

I looked up the etymologies a few days ago.

Corona = Crown
Virus = poison = (to kill with poisonous “plants”)

crowns try to kill U.S. with poisonous “plants” (Q said “plants” need water didn’t he?) and now we are being vaccinated to produce immunity against poisonous crowns.

Hmmm.

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corona (n.)

1650s, “a crown,” from Latin corona “a crown, a garland,” in ancient Rome especially “a crown or garland bestowed for distinguished military service,” from suffixed form of PIE root *sker- (2) “to turn, bend.”

With many extended senses in botany, anatomy, etc. A coronavirus (by 1969) is so called for the spikes that protrude from its membranes and resemble the tines of a crown or the corona of the sun. The two “crown” constellations, Corona Borealis (according to fable, the crown of Ariadne) and Corona Australis, are both Ptolemaic. Astronomical sense of “luminous circle observed around the sun during total eclipses” is from 1809. As a brand of Cuban cigar, 1876. The brand of Mexican pale lager beer dates from 1925.

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virus (n.)

late 14c., “poisonous substance,” from Latin virus “poison, sap of plants, slimy liquid, a potent juice,” from Proto-Italic *weis-o-(s-) “poison,” which is probably from a PIE root *ueis-, perhaps originallly meaning “to melt away, to flow,” used of foul or malodorous fluids, but with specialization in some languages to “poisonous fluid” (source also of Sanskrit visam “venom, poison,” visah “poisonous;” Avestan vish- “poison;” Latin viscum “sticky substance, birdlime;” Greek ios “poison,” ixos “mistletoe, birdlime;” Old Church Slavonic višnja “cherry;” Old Irish fi “poison;” Welsh gwy “poison”). The meaning “agent that causes infectious disease” is recorded by 1728 (in reference to venereal disease); the modern scientific use dates to the 1880s. The computer sense is from 1972.

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poison (n.)

c. 1200, “a deadly potion or substance,” also figuratively, from Old French poison, puison (12c., Modern French poison) “a drink,” especially a medical drink, later “a (magic) potion, poisonous drink” (14c.), from Latin potionem (nominative potio) “a drinking, a drink,” also “poisonous drink” (Cicero), from potare “to drink” (from PIE root *po(i)- “to drink”).

A doublet of potion. For similar form evolution from Latin to French, compare raison from rationem, trahison from traditionem. The Latin word also is the source of Old Spanish pozon, Italian pozione, Spanish pocion. The more usual Indo-European word for this is represented in English by virus. The Old English word was ator (see attercop) or lybb (cognate with Old Norse lyf “medicinal herbs;” see leaf (n.)). Slang sense of “alcoholic drink” first attested 1805, American English.


195 posted on 03/06/2020 8:32:30 PM PST by Cats Pajamas
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To: Cats Pajamas
1650s, “a crown,” from Latin corona “a crown,

Coronary arteries, so-named as they resemble a "crown" on the heart.

298 posted on 03/07/2020 10:41:57 AM PST by ROCKLOBSTER (We need to reach across the aisle, extend a hand...And slap the crap out of them)
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