@
Wunder: It isn't just diseases that can have weird names. The weirdest medical term I've ever seen, was
Otorhinolarygologist, the original name for an Ear, Nose & Throat specialist. Thankfully it has been sneezed down since then to Otolarygologist. Though somebody specialising in just ears & noses, leaving the throats to someone else, might be fairly called an Otorhinchologist. You might find others in the medical field. Of course, like many medical terms, the word is derived from the Greek words for Ear, Nose & Throat, just for the information of pet rhinos & Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer, not to mention rabbits & other creatures, including humans.

Yes the various diseases called poxes do have a long history, one, called the Great Pox, (syphilis, I think? or was it something else?) having been brought into Europe by returning sailors & others from the New World after 1492. If you read historical fiction, or if you are Cleander on
Speak like a Pirate Day you might say "A pox on those landlubbers who don't know a spar from a spear"

. Smallpox was brought into Europe in the 7th Century AD, by Islamic invaders who were immune themselves, because they were camel herders, who had already suffered from camel pox. Edward Jenner noticed that Smallpox rarely affected dairy maids who had already suffered from cow pox, which is how he discovered immunisation, now called vaccination. That word comes from the French word for Cows by the way. La Vache qui rire (the cow that laughs) was a brand of cheese sold here. Do chickens get chicken pox, by the way?
Grandmama wrote:Here's my weird word for the day: tintinnabulation, which means "the ringing of bells"
Have you ever seen anyone play music, using handbells, either alone or in concert with others? It is quite fascinating & enjoyable to listen to music played this way. We used to have church bells playing music as well as pealing in joy for weddings, & tolling for funerals but not so often these days, or only briefly. A church in London donated its church bells to the City of Perth in 1988, as a Carillon & there is also one in Lake Burley Griffin opposite Parliament House in Canberra. You'd hear much tintinnabulation there.
Otitis is earache by the way, whilst tinnitis is that maddening ringing in one's ears. Years ago I volunteered to work in a medical library where just about all the items there were about medicinal matters, so it was necessary to get a grip on medical terminology to keep them sorted. Latin is also a big contributor to professions like law & medicine. Anything with -ology or - ologist at the end of it refers to study or student in Greek.