Толковый словарь английского языка - prion

I. noun Etymology: New Latin, from Greek priōn saw, from priein to saw; from its sawlike bill Date: 1848 any of several small petrels (genus Pachyptila of the family Procellariidae) of the southern hemisphere that are bluish gray above and white below, II. noun Etymology: proteinaceous + infectious + 2-on Date: 1982 a protein particle that lacks nucleic acid and has been implicated as the cause of various neurodegenerative diseases (as bovine spongiform encephalopathy and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease)