The word was recorded in English by 1613, from Italian. George Chapman, the poet and playwright, used it to mock a group of impoverished scholars.
Italian had already used the word by the fourteenth century, though with a different meaning, describing someone morally upright. By 1525 the sense had shifted, describing someone with special skill or knowledge.
Behind the Italian word lay a Latin word meaning 'moral strength, or courage'. That word traces to a Proto-Indo-European root, *wi-ro-, meaning 'man'.
VIRILE and WEREWOLF share the same root. VIRILE entered English in the late fifteenth century, from Latin, describing manly force and strength. WEREWOLF is native to Old English, literally 'man-wolf', a person believed to transform into one.
By the mid-seventeenth century the word named members of the Royal Society, scholars devoted to natural philosophy and scientific inquiry. Around the same period, it also came to describe collectors of art, antiques, and curiosities, more enthusiastic than expert. By the eighteenth century the word had narrowed to its now-dominant sense, applied to musicians of exceptional skill.
