Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Etymology of Chicken Pox

It struck me today when I mentioned the origin of the word malaria that I should look up the origins of some more disease names. Some are obvious but some are not. Chicken pox for example. Apparently it is the source of some debate. Wikipedia sums it up:

There are several theories regarding the origin of the term chicken pox. It is often stated to be a modification of chickpeas (based on resemblance of the vesicles to chickpeas), or due to the rash resembling chicken pecks. Other theories include the designation chicken for a child (i.e., literally 'child pox') or a corruption of itching-pox. Samuel Johnson explained the designation as "from its being of no very great danger."

I also found this paper from the Lancet in 1896 which I thought was interesting.

ON THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF SOME DISEASE-NAMES.
William Sykes, M.D. DUNELM., F.S.A. (A CORRESPONDENT OF THE NEW ENGLISH DICTIONARY.)
All  disease-names  are only labels  by means of which the  maladies themselves  can be  identified, discriminated, and classified, and those  names are the best which are simple, distinctive, and express no theories of causation. It is the folk names which  most often meet these requirements, and therefore  deserve the widest adoption by us in the future.

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