Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun An infectious disease caused by a poxvirus that occurs mostly in the tropical rain forests of central and western Africa, is transmitted from wild animals killed for food, such as monkeys and squirrels, and causes symptoms similar to but milder than smallpox.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun pathology A viral disease, of primates and some other mammals, related to smallpox.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

monkey +‎ pox

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Examples

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  • There are many poxviruses in nature, and they infect species that gather in swarms and herds, circulating among them like pickpockets at a fair. There are two principal kinds of pox viruses: the poxes of vertebrates and the poxes of insects. Pox hunters have so far discovered mousepox, monkeypox, skunkpox, pigpox, goatpox, camelpox, pseudocowpox, buffalopox, gerbilpox, several deerpoxes, chamoispox, a couple of sealpoxes, turkeypox, canarypox, pigeonpox, starlingpox, peacockpox, sparrowpox, juncopox, mynahpox, quailpox, parrotpox, and toadpox. There's mongolian horsepox, a pox called Yaba monkey tumor, and a pox called orf. There's dolphinpox, penguinpox, two kangaroopoxes, raccoonpox, and quokkapox. (The quokka is an Australian wallaby.) Snakes catch snakepox, spectacled caimans suffer from spectacled caimanpox, and crocodiles get crocpox. . . .

    Insects are tortured by poxviruses. There are three groups of insect poxviruses: the beetlepoxes, the butterflypoxes (which include the mothpoxes), and the poxes of flies, including the mosquitopoxes. And attempt to get to the bottom of the insect poxes would be like trying to enumerate the nine billion names of God.

    . . .

    . . . The insect poxes may have arisen in early Devonian times, long before the age of dinosaurs . . . and the first insects were evolving. . . .


    At least two known midgepoxes torment midges. Grasshoppers are known to suffer from at least six different grasshopperpoxes. If a plague of African locusts breaks out with locustpox, the plague is hit with a plague, and is in deep trouble. Poxviruses keep herds and swarms of living things in check, preventing them from growing to large and overwhelming their habitats.

    Richard Preston, The Demon in the Freezer: A True Story (New York: Random House, 2002), pp. 64-66

    February 16, 2016

  • I don't want this to be a new word to watch for in 2022, but as of today it might be.

    May 18, 2022

  • A pox on all your squirrels!

    May 19, 2022

  • "The word bilby has been adopted by Royal Secret Society of Bilbies."

    I think we should double efforts to save the bilbies

    May 19, 2022

  • Music to my big ears.

    May 19, 2022