Etymology of 「消毒」


I was at the gym and they have these bottles of disinfectant to clean after
you've used the equipment, I started thinking about the kanji's and started
wondering why the 2nd kanji used is 「毒」 (poison).

Why the kanji for poison? Why not use something like 「消」 and 「菌」? Curious...

(I do know there's also 殺菌.)




  * 消毒 = _disinfection_
  * 殺菌 ≈ _sterilization_ (more accurate term for it is 滅菌)

> [**Disinfect vs.
> Sterilize**](http://www.diffen.com/difference/Disinfect_vs_Sterilize)
>
> Disinfection and sterilization are both decontamination processes. While
> **disinfection** is the process of eliminating or reducing _harmful_
> microorganisms from inanimate objects and surfaces, **sterilization** is the
> process of killing _all_ microorganisms. That is the main **difference
> between sterilizing and disinfecting**.

毒 in 消毒 should be understood as "harm". It doesn't refer to chemical
substances here.

消菌 sounds quite funny to me. Since 消 chiefly means "make vanish", it reminds
me of some kind of tile-matching game where germs of same color suddenly pop
when adjacent to others.

[![enter image description
here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/mb8sS.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/mb8sS.jpg)

