4  definitions  found 
 
  From  Webster's  Revised  Unabridged  Dictionary  (1913)  [web1913]: 
 
  Virus  \Vi"rus\,  n.  [L.,  a  slimy  liquid,  a  poisonous  liquid, 
  poison,  stench;  akin  to  Gr  ?  poison,  Skr.  visha.  Cf 
  {Wizen},  v.  i.] 
  1.  (Med.) 
  a  Contagious  or  poisonous  matter,  as  of  specific  ulcers, 
  the  bite  of  snakes,  etc.;  --  applied  to  organic 
  poisons. 
  b  The  special  contagion,  inappreciable  to  the  senses  and 
  acting  in  exceedingly  minute  quantities,  by  which  a 
  disease  is  introduced  into  the  organism  and  maintained 
  there 
 
  Note:  The  specific  virus  of  diseases  is  now  regarded  as  a 
  microscopic  living  vegetable  organism  which  multiplies 
  within  the  body,  and  either  by  its  own  action  or  by 
  the  associated  development  of  a  chemical  poison,  causes 
  the  phenomena  of  the  special  disease. 
 
  2.  Fig.:  Any  morbid  corrupting  quality  in  intellectual  or 
  moral  conditions;  something  that  poisons  the  mind  or  the 
  soul;  as  the  virus  of  obscene  books. 
 
  From  WordNet  r  1.6  [wn]: 
 
  virus 
  n  :  ultramicroscopic  infectious  agent  that  replicates  itself 
  only  within  cells  of  living  hosts;  many  are  pathogenic 
 
  From  Jargon  File  (4.2.3,  23  NOV  2000)  [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  (13  Mar  01)  [foldoc]: 
 
  virus 
 
  (By  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  {display  hack}s).  Many  nasty 
  viruses,  written  by  particularly  antisocial  {cracker}s,  do 
  irreversible  damage,  like  deleting  all  the  user's  files. 
 
  In  the  1990s,  viruses  have  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  to  denote  a 
  {worm}  or  even  a  {Trojan  horse}). 
 
  See  {boot  virus},  {phage}.  Compare  {back  door}.  See  also 
  {Unix  conspiracy}. 
 
  [{Jargon  File}] 
 
  (1995-01-31) 
 
 

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