Variolas

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An infectious disease characterized by the formation of pustules and fever, commonly linked to smallpox
2. A viral illness marked by distinct lesions on the skin and accompanied by systemic symptoms like high fever
3. A contagious condition caused by a virus that leads to the development of vesicular rash and significant morbidity

Etymology: "Variolas" is simply the plural of "variola", so it refers to the pustules or pocks themselves, the raised spots that marked the disease. The singular "variola" came into Medieval and Medical Latin as the name for an infectious disease producing these pustules, and the word traces back to the Latin adjective "varius", meaning "spotted" or "variegated". The disease was thus named for its appearance: the skin it left behind was marked with a patchwork of spots. English took the word through Middle English, where "variolas" appeared in the plural sense of "pustules" or "pocks". Its doublet "variole" travelled a related path into English, so the two words are the same Latin root arriving by different routes.