uiHso-

Grammatical information: m.

Meaning: `poison' (Pi., trag., Plu.).

Compounds: As 1. member e. g. in ἰο-βόρος `poison eating' (Nic., Opp.);

Derivatives: ἰώδης `poisonous' (Rom. empire).

Origin: IE [Indo-European] [1134] *uīso- or * uiso-, * uiHso-? `fluidity, slime, poison'

Etymology: Old word for `poison', often replaced by euphemistic expressions ( φάρμακον, Lat. venēnum, Germ. gift, French poison etc.), but still present in the languages of the margin, i. e. Indo-Iranian and Italo-Celtic: Skt. vĭṣá- n., Av. vī̆ša-, Lat. vīrus n. (genus sec.) = Irisch fī, IE *u̯ī̆so-; on the quantity cf. e. g. the cases in Fraenkel Nom. ag. 1, 91. Beside these thematic forms there is Av. viš- `id.' and, with deviating meaning, Skt. viṣ- `faeces'. Thus Lat. vīrus also means `tough fluidity, slime, sap'; cf. also Welsh gwyar `blood' and 4. ἰός. As IE *u̯ī̆s(o)- is prob. partly a tabuistic substitution, one considered connection with a verb, Skt. veṣati `flow out' (gramm.), with a Germ. river-name as Wisura `Weser', Vistula `Weichsel' (Krahe Beitr. z. Namenforschung 4, 38ff.); however, these `Old European' river names of Krahe are in general pre-, i.e. non-IE. - Lit. bei Bq, WP. 1, 243f., W.-Hofmann s. vīrus.

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