History of the taxon:

Etymology of the name:

Taxon: Retroviridae Proposal: Ratification_1975.pdf  ICTV Report: Retroviridae Reference: PMID: 21433350 

from the Latin retro, meaning “backwards”, referring to the activity of reverse transcriptase which transfers genetic information from RNA “back” to DNA during replication of viruses in the family; the suffix -viridae for family taxa