virus = "any disease-causing organism whatsoever"

[Jonathan Lighter]

"Just ignorant newscasters"?  I beg to differ.  You must mean "ignorant Americans." I started noticing this in the speech of Joe and Joanne Sixpack years ago. Joe and Joanne don't know from disease-causing organisms. They know about germs: synonym, "viruses." You can go for a long time in America without hearing the word "bacteria" (much less "bacterium"), except (perhaps) the friendly bacteria that clean your septic tank, or the helpful kind that live in your gut.  Somewhere in the collective unconscious of Joe and Joanne is an awareness that many bacteria cause disease, but if you're sick, it's almost gotta be  "some sort of virus" (And pass them antibiotics, Doc!).

  "Virus" = "germ" is an unpleasant fact of linguistic life. Compare "stomach flu," which usually has nothing to do with influenza, or "the flu" loosely used to designate a bad cold with a low-grade fever or just a transient fever with minor flu-like symptoms ("I guess I'm coming down with the flu or something," "I was out two days with the flu, but I feel a lot better today," "I had the 24-hour flu").

  My guess is that any brief illness symptomatically resembling influenza is routinely called "the flu" by the average college graduate.  Not to mention high-school graduate, dropout,
  etc.  I also suspect that millions and millions of speakers think of "bird flu" as some vague kind of deadly bird disease not necessarily related to "influenza."

  The commentator advising the avoidance of plague-packin' rodents was not a physician. IIRC, she was a "health correspondent."  Note well that she didn't say "Plague is caused by a virus."  She said things like, "Fleas can carry the virus" and "The virus killed nearly half of Europe in the Middle Ages."  Probably she knows the difference, but habit and inattention tend to prevail.

  So I wouldn't chalk this (mis)use of "virus" up to something as self-contained as "ignorant newscasters."  I'd chalk it up to "semantic drift," which is not quite the same thing.

  JL


  .

Dave Wilton <dave at WILTON.NET> wrote:
  ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Dave Wilton
Subject: Re: virus = "any disease-causing organism whatsoever"
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

No, it's just ignorant newscasters.

My question is whether the "on-screen head" talking about the bubonic plague
was a general journalist or some kind of "expert." If the latter, there is
no excuse; such a person should not be allowed on the air to talk about such
things. If it was the regular news person, then some leeway can be given
because we can't expect them to know everything--although the difference
between a bacteria and a virus is pretty basic stuff.

(And plague isn't a real worry anymore, at least not to anyone in the
Western world. Penicillin or any other broad-spectrum antibiotic stops it
cold.)


-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of
Charles Doyle
Sent: Tuesday, June 05, 2007 8:59 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: virus = "any disease-causing organism whatsoever"

Perhaps the metaphorical use of the term "virus" in computer parlance has
resulted in the broadening of the literal application to organic pathogens?
After all, there ARE no computer bacteria!

--Charlie
_____________________________________________________________
---- Original message ----
>Date: Tue, 5 Jun 2007 08:43:38 -0700
>From: Jonathan Lighter
>Subject: virus = "any disease-causing organism whatsoever"
>
>Fox News this morning: "The beef in your refrigerator could be contaminated
with a deadly virus! We'll tell you exactly the brand you must not eat - and
why!"
>
> OK, don't eat "Moran's.". The "virus" turns out to be the aggressive kind
of _E. coli_ bacteria. A recall has been declared.
>
> Some days ago an on-screen head was talking about the "virus" that causes
bubonic plague, and why you should steer clear of rodents in Denver.
>
> JL

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