What is the “hanta-” in “hantavirus”?

An outbreak of hantavirus starting in April aboard a cruise ship in the Atlantic Ocean has, as of writing, caused three deaths and grown to 11 cases. The incident has prompted many to learn more about the nature and risks of the rare virus. And, as ever, it has prompted me to wonder: What is the hanta– in hantavirus?

Rodents and rivers: how hantavirus got its name

Hantavirus is actually a group of viruses spread by rodents. Humans get infected when they come into contact with droplets containing rat or mice saliva, urine, or dung. While very rare, hantavirus is very lethal, especially because it causes hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome, or HFRS. 

It was this disease, HFRS, that was ultimately discovered to be behind a serious outbreak in the 1950s among soldiers fighting in the Korean War. The precise agent of this disease—evidence for which is thought to go as far back as 475 BCE in China—wasn’t identified until 1978, however. A South Korean scientist, Ho Wang Lee, led the effort, isolating the virus in a striped field mouse near the Hantan River, which flows through North and South Korea.

The virus was called the Hantaan virus after that river, whose name was apparently transliterated from the Korean with an extra A. Since 1978, scientists have found a number of other types of viruses like the Hantaan virus. They were classed into a genus given the Latin name of Hantavirus, the hanta- extracted from Hantaan. 

Hantaan virus is first recorded in English by 1981, Hantavirus by 1984.

While Hantavirus—italicized and with a capital H, as is the case for such scientific nomenclature—properly refers to a genus, it’s still widely common and acceptable to call a specific type or instance of hantavirus as such.

The hantavirus causing the latest outbreak is the Andes virus, a variant from South America. The affected cruise ship embarked from the southern tip of Argentina.

The word virus spread from the Latin for “poison” and other, stickier, ickier meanings, as my older post on the word explains.

Korean and kings: behind the name Hantan River

In Korean, the name of the Hantan River is 한탄강, or Hantangang. 

The best I’ve been able to determine, Hantangang literally translates to “Big Rapids River.” That’s a fitting name for a river indeed known for its rapids—and stunning and significant geology, so much so that UNESCO designated it a Global Geopark.

In the word Hantangang:

• han- (한) acts as a prefix meaning “big, large”
• tan (탄) refers to “rapids” or “shoals” 
• gang (강) is “river” 

Tan and gang trace back to Middle Chinese, the source of many Korean words. This han, though not all its other Korean homonyms, appears to be a native Korean word.

Now, for all its coincidental relevance to the emotions its namesake virus may cause, the Hantan in Hantan River is not to be confused with its Korean homonym hantan (한탄), meaning “grief, lamentation.”

Still, that connection hasn’t stopped legends: 

Back in the late 800s in Korea, a one-eyed monk named Kung Ye helped overthrow his government, founding his own short-lived kingdom, known as Later Goguryeo, in 901. A reputed tyrant and self-purported mindreader, Kung Ye was himself overthrown in 918 by one of his generals, Wang Kŏn. Before being killed, as the story goes, Kung Ye mourned his downfall by the river—whose subsequent name would remember his lament (hantan). 

Aftermash

The Korean spelling of Hantangang, 한탄강, is written in Hangul, the modern alphabet used to write Korean. Historically, Korean was—and in some contexts still is—written in Hanja, which uses traditional Chinese characters, Chinese having had a huge influence on Korean. 

In Hanja, Hantangang is written as 漢灘江. You see those three, droplet-like marks to the left of each character? That’s the Chinese radical (character element) for water, rooted in an ancient, river-looking character tracing back to carvings in bones used for divination. 

There’s so much more to the Korean language. Wade a little further with the lessons I learned while researching the so-called 4B movement.

As for Kung Ye’s overthrower Wang Kŏn, he went on to found the Goryeo dynasty. It’s from Goryeo we get the name Korea. Goryeo is said to mean “high and beautiful,” while Kung Ye’s Goguryeo means “high castle.” South Koreans, however, call their country Hanguk (한국), “nation of the Han,” a name for ethnic Korean peoples. North Koreans called themselves Chosŏn (조선), literally “morning freshness/newness.”

And as for Ho Wang Lee’s striped field mouse? That lil stinker’s scientific name is Apodemus agrarius. Agrarius is the Latin equivalent to “field.” as used as a modifier. Apodemus is the Latin form of the Greek apódēmos, meaning “abroad, away from home.”

I guess you, erm, never know what you’re going to pick up when you go abroad…