the.com/pox
A disease that marks the skin with pustules, and the old curse that borrowed its name.
means A disease marked by skin eruptions or pustules, or — in looser use — a curse you wish on something that's annoying you ('a pox on it').
from From Middle English 'pokkes,' the plural of 'pokke,' meaning a pustule or blister — ultimately from Old English 'pocc,' simply 'pustule.' The spelling 'pox' is really just 'pocks' worn smooth by pronunciation. The cursing sense ('a pox on you!') grew naturally out of wishing an actual disease on someone, back when smallpox and its kin were common enough threats to be useful insults.
- name origin
- Middle English for pocks, meaning pustules
- curse usage
- a pox on both your houses predates antibiotics, not etiquette
- eradicated version
- smallpox is the only human disease wiped out on purpose
- modern slang
- now mostly means chickenpox or syphilis, context matters a lot