# vaccination

Pronunciation: say "vak-si-NAY-shuhn" /ˌvæk.sɪˈneɪ.ʃən/

## Noun

1. The act of inoculating a person with a vaccine to protect against a particular disease or strain of disease.
   - Simple: The act of giving someone a vaccine to protect them from a disease.
   - _Widespread vaccination has nearly eliminated several childhood diseases._
   - _Health officials promoted vaccination ahead of the flu season._

## 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.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/vaccination (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).