Etymologically
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smallpox

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 1 November 2026 at 00:57. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈsmɔːlpɒks/[1]
  • US: /ˈsmɔlpɑks/[1]

Etymology

It is formed from English small + pox,[2][3][4][5][6][7] and until the mid 18th century it was generally spelled with a space between its parts.[2] It follows the slightly earlier small-pock, a pustule of the disease,[2][3][8] and was named in contrast to the great pox, syphilis.[9][3][6] Pox is an alteration of pocks, the plural of pock,[10][11][3][9] from Old English pocc (“pustule, blister, ulcer”);[3][9] small is from smæl.[9][3] Etymonline compares French petite vérole.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The pustules of the disease, and the disease itself: 1562, in Bullein's Comfortable Regiment and Ward's translation of Roussat.[2][5] Etymonline finds small pokkes in the 1510s,[3] and Dictionary.com dates the word to 1510–20;[4] the OED records small-pock for the disease from about 1510.[2] Etymonline dates small-pock to the mid 15th century.[3]

Semantic evolution

The plural first named the pustules themselves, a use obsolete by the end of the 18th century, and then the disease that produces them.[2] From 1793 it was also used, with a distinguishing word, for sheep-pox.[2] From 1759 to 1837 a smallpox cowrie or smallpox shell was a cowrie marked as if with the rash.[2] Johnson (1755) called it an eruptive distemper of great malignity.[7] The verb, to scar as if with smallpox, is recorded from 1864, and to infect or inoculate with it from 1886.[2] In American underworld slang, to have smallpox was to be wanted on a warrant, because anyone in the company of such a person could also be arrested.[12]

Timeline

  • c. 1510 – small-pock, the disease.[2] Etymonline finds small pokkes in the 1510s.[3]
  • 1562 – the pustules of the disease (obsolete by 1797), and the disease itself.[2][5]
  • 1759 – smallpox cowrie (obsolete by 1837).[2]
  • 1793 – sheep-pox.[2]
  • 1864 – verb, to scar as with smallpox.[2]
  • 1886 – verb, to infect or inoculate with smallpox.[2]
  • 1940 – have smallpox, to be wanted on a warrant.[12]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A highly contagious viral disease with high fever and a rash of pustules that leave pitted scars, now eradicated by vaccination; variola.[6][5][8]

Verb

  1. To infect with smallpox, or to scar as if with it.[5][2]
  • pox
  • pock
  • chickenpox
  • small-pock
  • great pox

References

  1. ^ a b 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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  5. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  7. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  8. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  9. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  10. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  11. ^ Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  12. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com