SMALLPOX

smallpox, variola, variola major

(noun) a highly contagious viral disease characterized by fever and weakness and skin eruption with pustules that form scabs that slough off leaving scars

Source: WordNet® 3.1

Etymology

Noun

smallpox (usually uncountable, plural smallpoxes)

(disease) An acute, highly infectious often fatal disease caused by Variola virus of the family Poxviridae. It was completely eradicated in the 1970s. Those who survived were left with pockmarks.

Synonym: variola

Source: Wiktionary

Small"pox`, n. Etym: [Small + pox, pocks.] (Med.)

Definition: A contagious, constitutional, febrile disease characterized by a peculiar eruption; variola. The cutaneous eruption is at first a collection of papules which become vesicles (first flat, subsequently umbilicated) and then pustules, and finally thick crusts which slough after a certain time, often leaving a pit, or scar.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition