Congo River mentioned in 1535. Abraham Ortelius in his world map of 1564 labeled as "Manicongo" the city at the mouth of the river. The tribal names in "Kongo" possibly derive from a word for a public gathering or tribal assembly. The modern name of the Kongo people or "Bakongo" was introduced in the early 20th century. The name "Zaire" is from a Portuguese adaptation of a Kikongo word, ("river"), a truncation of ("river swallowing rivers"). The river was known as "Zaire" during the 16th and 17th centuries; "Congo" seems to have replaced "Zaire" gradually in English usage during the 18th century,
Zaire ebolavirus to be preceded by the word "species". The names of its members (Zaire ebolaviruses) are to be capitalized, are not italicized, and used without articles. The species was introduced in 1998 as "Zaire Ebola virus". In 2002, the name was changed to "Zaire ebolavirus". A virus of the genus "Ebolavirus" is a member of the species "Zaire ebolavirus" if: "Zaire ebolavirus" diverged from its ancestors between 1960-1976. The genetic diversity of "Ebolavirus" remained constant before 1900. Then, around the 1960s, most likely due to climate change or human activities, the genetic diversity of the virus dropped rapidly and most lineages