If you would like details on the viral family, please see
parvoviridae, as this node is more about
nomenclature and specifically, the
etymology of the word
parvovirus. Thanks to
belgand for pointing this out.
parvo comes from the
Latin "parvus" which means small, and
virus comes from the Latin "virus" which means poison.
The
Oxford English Dictionary cites a usage of "virus" from 1527 to mean the venom from a poisonous animal. Apparently,
Edward Jenner, and later
Louis Pasteur used it to indicate a biological agent that was able to move from one infected person to another. Modern usage has restricted it to non-cellular organisms that reproduce in the
cells of other organisms using the cellular machinery of the host cells.
The
origination of the combination of "parvo" and "virus" is difficult to find. I suspect that a medical researcher who discovers or decides that some distinction ought to be made (such as the distinction between the generic idea of a virus and the idea of one that is composed of a single strand of DNA and has no envelope) might coin a term such as
parvoviridae. Then, either the term will spread (like a virus - let's say a
meme), or it will be challenged by one or more terms that others came up with for the same purpose or one very similar. Of course, the researchers involved may now generally be institutions like the
American Medical Association or the
World Health Organization.
sources:
www.merriam-webster.com
www.smc.maricopa.edu
www.fasthealth.com