Definition: Smallpox
From New World Encyclopedia
Etymology
From small + pox, in contrast to greatpox, the disease now known as syphilis.
Noun
smallpox (usually uncountable, plural smallpoxes)
- (pathology) An acute, highly infectious often fatal disease caused by Variola virus of the family Poxviridae. It was completely eradicated in the 1970s, but still exists in laboratories. Those who survived were left with pockmarks.
- The Europeans brought new diseases such as smallpox, measles, dysentery, influenza, syphilis, and leprosy.
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