Hantavirus Etymology.

Dmitry Pruss writes: The infamous family of the viruses has been named after the Hantan river in Korea, but where does the river’s name originate? As one can grasp from Reddit, “The hanja for the Han River 한강 is weirdly 漢江, which means “Han [Dynasty of China] River.” However: “The hanja (Chinese character) for 한 is 韓 which means Korea. This name is probably from when Korea was still a tributary state of China pre-late 19th century. It may also be from when Seoul was known as Hanyang.” And then: “Actually, the 漢 in 한강 does not actually represent the word “Han” but is rather used for its phonetic value. It transcribes the underlying form 한, which is the attributive form of the archaic verb 하다 “to be great; to be big” (not to be confused with 하다 “to do” which is an unrelated verb) So the name actually means “The Great River” (and from this name is also derived other names concerning the River such as 한성, the archaic name of Seoul). This verb itself is no longer used in Korean but the…