Final answer:
Europeans during the Columbian Exchange likely used descriptive names for diseases based on symptoms, but this is not specifically addressed by historical sources. Smallpox and other diseases were devastating to Native Americans because of their lack of immunity and previous exposure to these diseases.
Step-by-step explanation:
The question explores how European diseases were named during the Columbian Exchange. While it's unclear from historical sources exactly how Europeans named these diseases at the time, the common naming practices involved using descriptive names based on symptoms. However, according to the given choices, none of the options directly match historical practices.
Diseases such as smallpox had a significant negative impact on Native Americans because of a lack of immunity. Europeans had developed resistances to many of these diseases over time, hence they were not as severely affected during the Columbian Exchange. The diseases that Europeans brought to the Americas devastatingly reduced the native population through outbreaks like those of measles and smallpox.
The smallpox epidemic was particularly deadly, causing the greatest number of deaths among Amerindian populations in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. This was due to the Indigenous peoples' lack of previous exposure to contagious diseases that arose from European domesticated animals.