[comp.virus] 2 remarks about the name "virus"

raph@planet.british-telecom.co.uk (08/01/89)

In comp.virus you write:

>1. The English language has certain traditional ways of naming groups
>of animals, e.g., a goggle of goblins, a school of fish, a pack of
>wolves, etc.  Since both `virus' and `Trojan horse' have some kind of
>animal overtones, I wonder what other people (preferably English
>majors) think is a good way to name a group of those beasts.
>Definitely not `diskful'---a disk is likely to be anything but full
>after a visitation. A test-tube of viruses? A can of worms?  A pack of
>Trojan horses? `This BBS offers a horde of Trojan Horses for
>downloading.' Please reply directly to me, and I'll summarize in the
>newsgroup.

These terms are called 'venereal' terms, because they were used in
venery, or hunting. Maybe your analogy is stricter than you thought.