16th century, from Middle Low German pocke, from Proto-Germanic *pukkǭ, *pukkaz (“pock, swelling”), from Proto-Indo-European *bew-, *bʰew- (“to grow, swell”).
Cognate with Dutch pok, English pock. Displaced the variants Poche, Pfoche, which may go back to related Proto-Germanic *pukô, but are perhaps merely inadequate adaptations of the Low German form. The native High German word for “pock” is Blatter.