Dictionary

Chinese virus en · NOUN

Etymology

From Chinese + virus.

Meanings

1. (colloquial, countable, offensive, sometimes, uncountable) Synonym of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.
   • First it was the Chinese virus, then we had the murder hornets, then we had to close the embassy in Houston because of espionage … Now we’ve got all these mystery seeds coming in in the mail. 2021 July 15, Chris Heath, quoting Sid Miller, “The Truth Behind the Amazon Mystery Seeds”, in The Atlantic:
   • Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa, said on Twitter that “I don’t understand why China gets upset bc we refer to the virus that originated there the ‘Chinese virus’ Spain never got upset when we referred to the Spanish flu in 1918&1919.” 2020 March 13, Katie Rogers et al., “Trump Defends Using ‘Chinese Virus’ Label, Ignoring Growing Criticism”, in New York Times:
2. (colloquial, countable, offensive, sometimes, uncountable) Synonym of coronavirus, the disease COVID-19.
   • Stocks mostly recover on hope for handling of Chinese virus. 2020 January 22, Associated Press, headline:
   • There were supposed to be armies. Grand armies of contact tracers crisscrossing every county in the country on the hunt for the Chinese virus. 2020 June 16, David Marcus, “Contact Tracing Is A Fiasco Rejected By Most Americans”, in The Federalist:
   • More importantly, the number of anti-Asian hashtags rose by 797% and 17 400% for #covid19 and #chinesevirus, respectively. This represents a combined increase from about 12 000 to almost a half a million anti-Asian hashtags. 2021 May, Yulin Hswen; Xiang Xu; Hing, Anna; Hawkins, Jared B.; Brownstein, John S.; Gee, Gilbert C., “Association of ‘#covid19’ Versus ‘#chinesevirus’ With Anti-Asian Sentiments on Twitter”, in American Journal of Public Health, volume 111, →DOI, page 960:
   • (quoting a sign in a doctor's office) "Dear patients: During this time period of the Chinese Virus, please observe the six foot rule of social distancing." 2020 November 13, Natalie Pasquarella, “NJ Mom Stunned to See Sign About ‘Chinese Virus' — At A Doctor's Office”, in NBC New York:
   • I don't even talk about it because when it COVID came in, which is the Chinese virus, when Chinese virus came in, that was so much bigger than anything else. I mean they owe us $20 trillion. 2021 August 18, Maria Bartiromo, Peter Doocy, Dagen McDowell, “Biden Cuts Vacation Short, Returns to White House; […] ”, in Mornings with Maria, spoken by Donald Trump, via Fox Business Network:
3. (countable, uncountable) Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see Chinese, virus. A pathogen or malware originating, identified, or causing outbreaks in China.
   • We had great difficulty with the Chinese virus at first. 2008, Ciba Foundation, Novel Diarrhoea Viruses, page 41:
   • The Chinese virus seems to be more closely related to the marine type of Mexican virus than to the European virus. 1938, The Chinese Medical Journal, volume 53, page 86:
   • for the Chinese virus to find its way into the ducks of the Red River delta or Mekong Delta or the central plains of Thailand, it helps a lot if, in between those places, you have lots of hugely susceptible chickens. 2009, Paul Roberts, The End of Food, page 198:
   • It said that the "No 1 Chinese virus," a new kind of computer virus made by a college student through modifying an imported foreign virus in South China's Guangdong Province had already spread to many of the province's important units. 1990, China Report: Science and Technology:
   • The Chinese virus has completely penetrated the fabric of the Hosaka. 1984, William Gibson, Neuromancer, page 231:

Forms

Relateds

Wuhan coronavirus · kung flu · Wuhan virus · Wuhanvirus · China virus · Wuhan flu

Synonyms

SARS-CoV-2 · coronavirus

Translations (7)

de chinesisches Virus (Translations) · ja 武漢ウイルス (Translations) · de China-Virus (Translations) · de chinesischer Virus (Translations) · pl chiński wirus (Translations) · ja 武漢肺炎 (Translations) · de Chinavirus (Translations)