Pock

Pock is a noun meaning a small pit or hollow on a surface, especially on the skin. It is most often encountered in the compound pockmark, which denotes a circular scar left by a pox disease or similar skin eruptions. In modern medical usage the term pock is largely archaic; today the related adjective “pockmarked” and the noun “pockmark” are more common.

Historically, pocks referred to lesions caused by diseases such as smallpox (variola). The phrase the pocks was used to describe the disease itself, and survivors often bore distinctive pockmarks—pitted scars on the face and body. Over time, this terminology has fallen out of everyday clinical speech, with modern references preferring terms like smallpox or variola and the more precise description of scars.

In geology and marine science, pock can appear in the form of pockmarks. A pockmark is a shallow, circular depression on the seabed or other sediment surfaces, formed by the escape of gas or fluids from beneath the substrate. These features can vary in size and are studied to understand subsurface processes and sediment dynamics.

Etymology and usage: pock derives from historical English roots associated with holes or pits. While it survives in fixed phrases such as pockmark and pockmarked, it is rarely used as a standalone term in contemporary medical or scientific writing. The root also appears in the older expression the pocks, but modern language tends to favor more specific terminology.