Ivanovsky's tobacco mosaic vs. Fred Cohen.
Which meaning of Virus is the original, and which one is the duplicate riding on its name? Virus (biology) came first (c. 1892). Computer virus arrived in 1983. The data below shows which one owns the word now.
Wikipedia pageviews since 2015
Virus (biology)Computer virus
English Wikipedia pageviews since July 2015 load here.
Duplicate's share of attention
Green line = duplicate's % · above 60 it owns the word · below 40 the original does
The case for each meaning
Sourced definitions, usage stats and quotes
Original · c. 1892
Virus (biology)
Loading the Wikipedia definition…
12-mo pageviews—
Year over year—
Peak month—
Duplicate · c. 1983
Computer virus
Loading the Wikipedia definition…
12-mo pageviews—
Year over year—
Peak month—
More duplicated terms
Cybersecurity
Worm · Computer wormTrojan · Trojan horse (malware)Hash · Hash functionKey · Key (cryptography)Salt · Salt (cryptography)Phish · PhishingZombie · Zombie (computing)Harvest · Email harvestingInject · Code injectionPayload · Payload (computing)Realm · Realm (security)Certificate · Public key certificateSpoof · Spoofing attackSniff · Packet sniffingExploit · Exploit (security)Shield · DDoS protectionBounty · Bug bountyRansom · Ransomware