picornavirus
/pɪˈkɔɹnəˌvaɪɹəs/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.05 in modern English
19
Scrabble Score
12
Letters
3
Syllables
10
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
Any of the family Picornaviridae of RNA viruses, many of which are pathogenic, causing diseases such as polio, foot-and-mouth disease, and many varieties of the common cold.
Example Sentences
- "Historically, interest in virology developed because these tiny microbes caused significant human and veterinary disease. One picornavirus, foot-and-mouth disease virus, was the first animal disease virus discovered; it was identified by Friedrich Loeffler and Paul Frosch in 1898 as a filterable, infectious agent that caused the dreaded foot-and-mouth disease. The discovery of poliovirus as the etiologic agent of poliomyelitis was reported 11 years later by Karl Landsteiner and Edwin Popper..."
Etymology
The name "picornavirus" has a dual etymology. Firstly, the name derives from picorna- which is an acronym for "poliovirus, insensitivity to ether, coxsackievirus, orphan virus, rhinovirus, and ribonucleic acid". Secondly, the name derives from pico-, which designates a very small unit of measurement (equivalent to 10⁻¹²), combined with rna to describe this group of very small RNA viruses.; pico- + RNA + virus