The Curse of the Pox

One history of medicine book claims Giovanni Filippo (1510–1580) of Palermo the first description of varicella (chickenpox). Subsequently in the 1600s, an English physician named Richard Morton described what he thought was a mild form of smallpox as "chicken pox." Later, in 1767, a physician named William Heberden, also from England, was the first physician to clearly demonstrate that chickenpox was different from smallpox. However, it is believed the name chickenpox was commonly used in earlier centuries before doctors identified the disease.

There are many explanations offered for the origin of the name chickenpox:

-the specks that appear looked as though the skin was picked by chickens,
-the disease was named after chick peas, from a supposed similarity in size of the seed to the lesions
-Samuel Johnson suggested that the disease was "no very great danger," thus a "chicken" version of the pox
-the term reflects a corruption of the Old English word, "giccin", which meant "itching"
-As "pox" also means curse, in medieval times some believed it was a plague brought on to curse children by the use of black magic.

During the medieval era, oatmeal was discovered to soothe the sores, and oatmeal baths are today still commonly given to relieve itching.


Some shortcut answer :-

"Chickenpox (varicella): A highly infectious viral disease, chickenpox is known medically (and in many countries) as varicella. Chickenpox has nothing to do with chicken. The name was meant to distinguish this "weak" form of the pox from smallpox (chicken being used, as in chickenhearted, to mean weak or timid). The "pox" of chickenpox is no major matter unless infected (through scratching) or occurring in an immunodeficient person."