prion/ˈpɹiːɒn/EtymologyFrom (a reordering of) the initial letters of proteinaceous infectious particle. Coined by American neurologist and biochemist Stanley B. Prusiner in 1982.nounA self-propagating misfolded conformer of a protein that is responsible for a number of diseases that affect the brain and other neural tissue.“Prions retain deep mysteries, the foremost of which is what on earth they exist for.”A petrel of the genera Pachyptila and Halobaena.