virulentとは 意味・読み方・使い方

語源

From 中期英語 virulent (“leaking or seeping pus, purulent; (of putrefaction) extremely severe (sense uncertain)”) [and other forms], borrowed from Latin vīrulentus (“poisonous”), from vīrus (“poison; venom; slime, slimy liquid; stinking smell; nasty taste”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *wisós (“poison; slime; fluidity”)) + -ulentus (suffix meaning ‘abounding in, full of’, forming adjectives).

Sense 4 (“of a pathogen: replicating within its host cell, then immediately causing it to undergo lysis”) is derived from French virulent, which was first used in this sense by the French biologist François Jacob (1920–2013) and his co-authors in a 1953 article.

発音

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /ˈvɪɹ(j)ʊl(ə)nt/, /-ɹ(j)ə-/
• (General American) IPA: /ˈvɪɹ(j)ələnt/
• ハイフネーション: vi‧ru‧lent

形容詞

virulent (comparative more virulent, superlative most virulent)

1. Of animals, plants, or substances: extremely venomous or poisonous.

   Antonyms: harmless, nonvirulent

2. (figurative) Extremely hostile or malicious; intensely acrimonious.

   The politicians were virulent in their hatred of the president.

   • c. 1515–1516, published 1568, John Skelton, Againſt venemous tongues enpoyſoned with ſclaunder and falſe detractions &c.:

     More venemous and much more virulent / Then any poyſoned tode, or any ſerpent.

   • 1963, Margery Allingham, “The Well House”, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC, page 105:

     It was a casual sneer, obviously one of a long line. There was hatred behind it, but of a quiet, chronic type, nothing new or unduly virulent, and he was taken aback by the flicker of amazed incredulity that passed over the younger man's ravaged face.

   • 2025 December 15, Greg Sargent, Inside Stephen Miller’s Dark Plot to Build a MAGA Terror State‎, The New Republic:

     They were targeted by a virulent strain of nativism toward those from Southern and Eastern Europe that was largely about race.

3. (medicine) Of a disease or disease-causing agent: malignant, able to cause damage to the host.

   Antonyms: benign, nonvirulent

4. (microbiology) Of a pathogen: replicating within its host cell, then immediately causing it to undergo lysis. [from 1953]

派生語

関連する語

• virulence
• virulency (dated)
• virus

参考

• pathogenic

参照

Further reading

• virulence on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

アナグラム

• evil turn