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From: "Mike Lyle" <mike_lyle_uk@REMOVETHISyahoo.co.uk>
Newsgroups: alt.languages.english
Subject: Re: help on "a pox on the lot of you"
Date: Tue, 5 Jul 2005 11:05:11 +0100
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BCBD wrote:
> Will you tell me what does it mean?
>
> I found it while reading the following:
> "Yes, he was brash. But at heart he was a kindly, goodly soul who
> wanted nothing more than to rid the world of evil. And still you
> condemn him.A pox on the lot of you."
>
> I am a non-English speaker. Will be kind enough to help me? Thanks
a
> lot!
>
> Best,
>
> BCBD
It was a favourite informal curse in earlier times (see Shakespeare
and others). "Pox" refers to a variety of diseases which cause
lesions ("pocks") on the skin, but in this kind of use it's syphilis.
"May you catch the pox!"
It's no longer in "natural" speech or writing, but literate people
still use it occasionally in a slightly jocular way.
--
Mike.
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