cytomegalovirus

The term 'cytomegalovirus' is a modern scientific compound built directly from Greek and Latin roots to describe a specific medical phenomenon. The first element, 'cyto-', derives from the Greek word for a container or cell. It is combined with 'megalo-', from the Greek for great or large, directly referencing the virus's characteristic effect of causing infected cells to become enlarged. The final component, '-virus', is a Latin term originally meaning poison or venom, which was adopted into scientific vocabulary to classify this class of infectious agents. Thus, the word's literal construction—"large cell virus"—precisely and logically names the pathogen based on its distinctive cytopathic effect observed under a microscope.