Coronavirus refers to a family of viruses that cause respiratory infections. The lager-style beer was first brewed in 1925.ĭue to the 2020 pandemic, however, corona became widely used as a shortened form for coronavirus, especially COVID-19. The logo for corona features a gold crown- corona being the Spanish word for “crown,” also from the Latin corōna. It was borrowed from the ancient Greek korṓnē, a word used for a kind of crow or seabird, as well as for anything curved or hooked, presumably due to the shape of the beak of such birds.īefore 2020, the word corona likely brought to mind for many people Corona, a popular brand of beer made in Mexico. Now, the Latin corōna has its own fascinating past. Crown developed from the Middle English coroune, among other forms, which came from the Anglo-French coroune, in turn from the Latin corona. Much older than corona, crown is found in English around 1125–1175. Today, astronomers specifically use corona for the outermost part of the sun’s atmosphere, which is visible during a total solar eclipse.Īs we’ve seen, corona comes from the Latin word for “crown.” So does the very word crown! Next up in English’s record, evidenced around the mid-1600s, is corona meaning “a ring of light, as around the sun or moon”-like a figurative crown atop the head of a celestial body. The oldest recorded sense of corona in English refers to the projecting, slab-like part of a classical cornice. These applications of corōna informed the earliest uses of the word in English. Outside of literal crowns worn on the head, the Latin corōna could be used for various things that resemble crowns in their form, including cornices and the halo around the sun. This crown became a symbol for emperors and appeared on coins. It was also known as corōna querca, or “oak crown,” because it was made with oak leaves. One especially high honor was the corōna cīvica (“civic crown”), bestowed on a citizen who saved a fellow citizen’s life. For instance, the corōna mūrālis, or “walled crown,” was a gold crown fashioned in the shape of battlements and was awarded to a soldier who was the first to enter a besieged town or fortress. Priests donned corōnae when performing important rituals and sacrifices.ĭifferent types of corōna were used as military decorations honoring various acts of bravery. People wore corōnae of flowers at festivals, for example, or used them to ornament images of gods. Back then, a corōna served various ceremonial and symbolic functions. Let’s start with a glimpse into life in ancient Rome.
A verb form of corōna was corōnāre, “to crown, wreathe,” ultimate source of the English coronation, “the act or ceremony of crowning a king, queen, or other sovereign.” It was borrowed directly from the Latin corōna, meaning “garland, wreath, crown.” Its plural form is corōnae. They are still SARS-CoV-2, but may act differently.Flowers and crows, priests and soldiers, suns and moons, kings and queens, lagers and viruses? What could all these disparate things possibly have in common? Well, in one way or another, they are involved in the rich history of the word corona.Ĭorona entered English around 1555–65. Scientists call the viruses with these changes “variants”. Sometimes branches of that tree have different attributes that change how fast the virus spreads, or the severity of illness it causes, or the effectiveness of treatments against it. Just as a family has a family tree, the SARS-CoV-2 virus can be similarly mapped out. Because of the importance of this specific part of the virus, scientists who sequence the virus for research constantly monitor mutations causing changes to the spike protein through a process called genomic surveillance.Īs genetic changes to the virus happen over time, the SARS-CoV-2 virus begins to form genetic lineages. Some antibodies can protect you from SARS-CoV-2 by targeting these spike proteins. The spike protein is the part of the virus that attaches to a human cell to infect it, allowing it to replicate inside of the cell and spread to other cells. These spike proteins are important to the biology of this virus. The word corona means crown and refers to the appearance that coronaviruses get from the spike proteins sticking out of them. Like many other respiratory viruses, coronaviruses spread quickly through droplets that you project out of your mouth or nose when you breathe, cough, sneeze, or speak. It is part of the coronavirus family, which include common viruses that cause a variety of diseases from head or chest colds to more severe (but more rare) diseases like severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS). About SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19ĬOVID-19 is caused by a virus called SARS-CoV-2.
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