different between virii vs virid

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /va??a?/

Noun

virii

1. (proscribed) plural of virus

Usage notes

• The plural virii, though common, is based on a misunderstanding of Latin. There is no example of a plural for the word virus in Classical Latin.

References

• Plural of virus on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

English

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Latin viridis, from vire? (“I am green”). Doublet of vert.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?v???d/

Noun

virid (plural virids)

1. (rare) A green colour.
   • 1991, Doris Mary Stenton, English Society in the Early Middle Ages, Penguin Books, page 173:

     In January 1208 the king ordered for a chaplain a robe of virid or burnet with a hood of coney skin ‘like our other chaplains’, […]

   • 1994, Paul U. Unschuld, Learn to Read Chinese, volume 1, Paradigm Publications, page 249:

     (Among the colors) the five types of virid, red, yellow, white, and black are distinguished; […]

Adjective

virid (comparative more virid, superlative most virid)

1. Green, verdant.
   • 1858, James Macpherson, The Highlander, Canto IV, page 52,

     The palace here, and there a virid mound, / Confine a flow'ry spot of grassy ground.

   • 1929, James Branch Cabell, Chivalry, 2006, page 135,

     Virid fields would heave brownly under their ploughs; they would find that with practice it was almost as easy to chuckle as it was to cringe.

   • 1977, Angela Carter, The Passion of New Eve

     His protruberant eyeballs were veined with red like certain kinds of rare marble. He urged me to meditate upon the virid line of the whirling universe.

Related terms

• viridescence
• viridescent
• viridian
• viridity

See also

• Appendix:Colors

Etymology 2

From virus +? -id or from translingual viridae (“a grouping of viruses”), from virus +? -idae, from Latin virus (“poison”)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?va???d/

Noun

virid (plural virids)

1. (usually in the plural) Any of a group of related viruses.