THERE'S NO SHORTAGE of theories on how chicken pox got its name, but two are more credible than others. One is that the term derives from cicer, the Latin word for chickpea, which a chicken pox pustle resembles. The other suggests it comes from the Old English word for itch, gican.
Be they itchy pox or chickpea pox, one thing is ertain: chicken pox doesn't come from chickens.
Pox, or pocks, is an acient word for any disease characterised by pustules on the skin's surface. Aside from chicken pox and smallpox, there is also the lesser-know cow-pox - carried by rodents but often transmitted to humans via contaminated cows during milking - and a rare form of smallpox seen in Africa called monkey pox.
No comments:
Post a Comment