Y.

pestis was discovered in 1894 by Alexandre Yersin, a Swiss/French physician and

bacteriologist from the Pasteur Institute, during an epidemic of the plague in Hong Kong.

Yersin actually linked plague with Y. pestis. Named Pasteurella pestis in the past, the organism
was renamed Yersinia pestis in 1944.

From Latin pestis (disease, plague). [1]

1880-85; < Late Latin, variant of Latin bacillum (diminutive of baculum) staff, walkingstick

De la - of the Origin of pasteurellaExpand

< New Latin (1887), after L. Pasteur; see -ella

Origin of -ellaExpand

< New Latin, Latin, feminine of -ellus; see -elle

< New Latin, Latin, Greek, equivalent to -i- (formative or connective) or -- (Greek -ei-) + -a,
feminine singular or neuter plural noun or adj