Chicken Pox

This morning, when we were having breakfast, out of the blue Timmy asked me: 
"Mom, why cacar air is called chicken pox? 
Do we get chicken pox if we come near the chicken?"

Me: "No Tim, you don't get chicken pox if you come near the chicken. It's caused by virus." 

Tim: "Then why is it called chicken pox? If you get chicken pox, do you look like the chicken?"

Now, he gets me thinking, "Yeah? why is it called chicken pox? Not bubble pox or something, since it has bubble with water in it?"

He likes chicken so much, he even has his 'little chicken' to accompany him to sleep. 
Hehehee..

I searched Google and found the following answers usefull:

• Chickenpox is an infectious disease which usually occurs in children, causing slight fever and an eruption of transparent vesicles (blisters). It is caused by a herpes virus called varicella-zoster, which also causes shingles.

  • 7 years ago
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• kev

  http://kidshealth.org/parent/question/me…
  
  Chickenpox got its name from the blisters that are seen with the illness. These red spots - which are about 1/5 inch to 2/5 inch (5mm to 10mm) wide - were once thought to look like chick peas on the skin. So chickenpox got its name from cicer, which is the Latin word for chick peas. In case you were wondering, chickenpox never comes from a chicken!

  • 7 years ago
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• hande

  The word chickenpox comes from the Old English word "gican" meaning "to itch" or from the Old French word "chiche-pois" for chickpea, a description of the size of the lesion