Transmission electron micrograph of a coronavirus, 1975.
12 May 2020
Coronavirus is the name for a genus of viruses that infect mammals—including humans—and birds and can cause gastrointestinal, respiratory, and neurological disease. Corona is the Latin word for crown or wreathe, and the surface projections of the viruses resemble a solar corona when viewed under an electron microscope. The name was coined in conjunction with their classification as a separate genus in 1968. From the 16 November 1968 issue of the journal Nature:
In the opinion of the eight virologists these viruses are members of a previously unrecognized group which they suggest should be called the coronaviruses, to recall the characteristic appearance by which these viruses are identified in the electron microscope.
The coronavirus that started the global pandemic in December 2019 is called SARS-CoV-2, for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, CoronaVirus-2, the second coronavirus that causes SARS. (The first one being the 2002–03 outbreak.) The disease it causes is Covid-19, for Coronavirus Disease 2019. These names were in place by 21 January 2020.
The virus is also often referred to as novel coronavirus, which simply means that it is newly discovered. Novel can refer to any new virus, as seen in this quotation from a July 2004 article in the Journal of Medical Virology about the 2002–03 SARS outbreak:
Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is a newly emerged human disease caused by a novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV).
Sources:
Chan, Paul K.S., et al. “Persistent Infection of SARS Coronavirus in Colonic Cells in Vitro.” Journal of Medical Virology, 74.1, July 2004, 1–7.
Oxford English Dictionary, third edition, June 2008, s.v. coronavirus, n.
Sheikh, Knvul and Roni Caryn Rabin. “The Coronavirus: What Scientists Have Learned So Far,” New York Times, 21 January 2020.
“Virology: Coronaviruses.” Nature, 220, 16 November 1968, 650.
Photo credit: U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) / Dr. Fred Murphy, 1975.