vaccination
Pluralvaccinations
- 1The act of inoculating a person with a vaccine to protect against a particular disease or strain of disease.
Like showing the body a wanted poster so it can recognize and stop an intruder before it causes harm.
Widespread vaccination has nearly eliminated several childhood diseases.
Health officials promoted vaccination ahead of the flu season.
Similarimmunization, inoculation
Note
Its name keeps a cow in it. Edward Jenner coined the word in 1798 from vaccinia, cowpox, ultimately Latin vacca, because he protected people against smallpox by infecting them with weakened cowpox. Used uncountably, it names the practice (saved more lives than any procedure except vaccination). Counted, it means individual doses or events (encourage vaccinations). Immunization overlaps with it broadly in meaning.
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Origin
Coined by Edward Jenner in 1798, from vaccinia (a cowpox infection), ultimately from Latin vacca ('cow'). Jenner infected people with weakened cowpox virus (vaccinia) to immunise them against smallpox; at the time cowpox and vaccinia were thought to be the same condition, though they are now known to be separate.