Chicken pox

Chicken pox, which also is known by its Latin name of varicella, is a misnomer. The disease has nothing to do with chickens.

1.Chicken pox comes from the Middle French term "chiche pois" -- which means "chickpea."

"In the Middle Ages, people in Europe made the distinction between chicken pox and smallpox. The French called chicken pox 'varicella' but the English decided on a new word that referred to the size of a chickpea. The lesions on the skin were thought to be the size of chickpeas. 'Chichepois' eventually became 'chicken pox,'

The chicken pox virus itself is the second-largest known virus in the world and is about half the size of the smallpox virus. Of the 70 genes contained in chicken pox, only a few of the genes are important for the ability of the virus to infect people.