pox

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English the Middle English plural pokkes of pock, with its spelling altered,^{[2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9]} inherited from Old English pocc (“pustule, ulcer”).^[10][4][11] It is cognate with Middle Dutch pocke, Middle Low German pocke, Dutch pok and German Pocke.^[2][11][5] Etymonline takes this from Proto-Germanic *puh(h)- (“to swell up, blow up”), from Proto-Indo-European *beu- (“to swell, to blow”),^[4] and the OED from the same Germanic base as pough.^[2] The Shorter Oxford notes that the word began as the plural, with a later change of consonants,^[12] and the OED notes the apparent surname Poxe in London records of 1271 and 1273.^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A disease with a rash of pustules, and the pustules themselves: 1476, in the Stonor Letters.^[2] Etymonline also says the late 15th century, for the spelling,^[4] and Barnhart's first record is of 1503.^[3] The plural pokkes for such a disease is older: about 1280 in Barnhart, the late 13th century in Etymonline.^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

The word stood for any disease marked by pustules, and especially, from 1503, for syphilis, often with a qualifier such as French or great,^[2][4] which is why smallpox, from the 16th century, was so named: to distinguish it from the great pox.^[8] Chickenpox, from the 18th century, is possibly named for the disease's mildness.^[8] Johnson (1755) gave "pustules" first and then the venereal disease, "the sense when it has no epithet", and called the proper spelling pocks.^[13] From before 1592 it served in curses such as a pox on,^[2] kept up in Scottish and Cheshire dialect, where it meant a plague.^[14] Sheep and other domestic animals had their own pox from 1530,^[2] and medicine has used the word since 1931 for any disease caused by a poxvirus.^[2] Since 1963 it can also mean a thing seen as a plague or infection.^[2][6] In Scotland, Northern Ireland and West Yorkshire to cut for the pox meant "to vaccinate", and at Dalbeattie stoneworkers used the verb for damaging a stone beyond use.^[14] American drug slang has pox for opium from 1933, which Green's dictionary tentatively takes as short for yen pok.^[15]

Timeline

• 1476 – a disease with a rash of pustules; also the pustules themselves.^[2]
• 1503 – syphilis.^[2][3]
• 1530 – a disease of domestic animals.^[2]
• before 1592 – in curses, a pox on.^[2] The Shorter Oxford dates this use to the early 16th century.^[12]
• 1601 – verb, to infect with the pox, in Jonson.^[2][6]
• 1931 – in medicine, a disease caused by a poxvirus.^[2]
• 1933 – American drug slang, opium.^[15]
• 1963 – figuratively, a plague or infection.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. Any of various virus diseases with pustules on the skin; usually in compounds such as chickenpox or cowpox.^[6][16][2]
2. the pox (informal): syphilis.^[16][6][2]
3. A similar disease of domestic animals, especially sheep.^[2][6]
4. A thing that spreads like a rash; a plague: a pox of billboards along the highway.^[6][2]
5. (archaic) Smallpox.^[6][12]
6. (archaic) a pox on: a curse on someone or something, showing disgust or impatience.^[16][2][12]

Verb

1. (archaic) To infect with the pox, especially syphilis.^[6][2][12]

Word family

• poxy
• cowpox
• smallpox
• goatpox
• horsepox
• mousepox
• poxvirus
• swinepox

Related words

• pock

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
9. ^ Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
10. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
11. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
12. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
14. ^ a b Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
15. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
16. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins