vaccine
Pluralvaccines
Pluralvaccines
Formsvaccines, vaccining, vaccined
- 1A preparation given to make the body produce antibodies and gain immunity to a disease without causing the disease itself, made from the disease agent, a safer related form, or a synthetic substitute.
Researchers tested the vaccine in three trial phases before seeking approval.
Each vaccine trains the immune system to recognize a specific pathogen.
Note
The noun owes part of its life to French, where vaccine was short for variole vaccine, "cowpox." It can be counted or used as a mass noun: you can speak of COVID vaccines or of other vaccines "in the pipeline," and also of a supply of vaccine. Bernard Shaw's The Doctor's Dilemma already scolds a doctor who "ought to know the difference between a vaccine and an anti-toxin."
- 2The process of vaccination, the immunizing or inoculating of a person or animal against disease.
We booked the puppy's next round of vaccines at the clinic for early spring.
Her flu vaccine went quickly, and she was back at her desk before her coffee got cold.
Similarshot, jab, vaccination, inoculation, immunization
Note
Here the word names the event rather than what is in the syringe, which is why it is so readily counted: a dog has two vaccines in a year, and a patient gets a flu vaccine at the clinic. Everyday speech moves freely between this and the substance itself. When the difference matters, vaccination or immunization names the act without ambiguity.
- 3Something defensive or protective in nature, working in the manner of a medical vaccine.
Skepticism can serve as a vaccine against propaganda and rumor.
Early exposure to small setbacks became a vaccine that toughened the young athletes.
Similarantidote, inoculation, safeguard, defense, shield
- 4A software program that protects a computer against malware, or that detects and removes computer viruses; an antivirus.
The IT team deployed a vaccine across every workstation in the office.
An outdated vaccine may miss the latest forms of malware.
Similarantivirus
Note
Computing carries the virus metaphor through to its end: if malicious code is a virus, the software that defends against it is a vaccine. Antivirus is the plainer synonym, while vaccine keeps the image vivid. Like the medical noun, it can be counted, as in deploying a vaccine or relying on an outdated vaccine.
- 5Relating to cowpox as a source of material for protecting against smallpox, or to such material itself.
Physicians in 1840 relied on vaccine lymph drawn directly from infected heifers.
I will call upon them: they are healthy children, we can have the vaccine infection from them, and I will inoculate the boy myself.
1804, Maria Edgeworth, “To-morrow. Chapter VII. Moral Habits Seldom Changed by Change of Fortune.”Note
Here the adjective turns practical and names cowpox matter put to work against smallpox. Maria Edgeworth, writing in 1804, has a character plan to "have the vaccine infection" from healthy children and inoculate a boy with it. In historical texts, phrases like vaccine lymph or vaccine matter point to that cowpox material, never to the modern preparation.
- 6Relating to, resulting from, or typical of cowpox.
The physician examined the vaccine pustules covering the milker's wrist.
Country folk recognized the vaccine eruption as a harmless cattle ailment.
Note
The adjective came into English from Latin vaccīnus, "of or derived from a cow," built on vacca, "cow." In medicine the cow narrowed to its pox: vaccine pustules or a vaccine eruption are the marks of cowpox. The usage is historical, so a modern writer should simply say cowpox. The adjective also does not compare, since nothing is more or less vaccine than something else.
- 7Matter collected from the pustules of cowpox and used to vaccinate people against smallpox.
Surgeons preserved the vaccine between glass plates to carry it inland.
A shortage of vaccine delayed the inoculation of the regiment.
Note
In older medical writing, vaccine on its own, usually as a mass noun, meant the cowpox matter itself. Surgeons could keep it, carry it or run short of it. It is easily confused with cowpox the disease. The test is whether the text describes a substance a surgeon handles or an illness a herd catches.
Less common meanings
- 8Of, relating to, or derived from cattle.
The tannery dealt chiefly in vaccine leather and horn.
Old ledgers recorded vaccine stock among the estate's holdings.
Similarbovine
Note
Here the Latin source shows through most plainly: vaccīnus, "of a cow," from vacca. Used this way, vaccine simply describes cattle, the job bovine does today. The sense is archaic, and a modern reader will hear the medical word first, so bovine is the safe choice outside period writing. The cowpox adjective is the same Latin word narrowed to one disease of cows.
- 9Cowpox, especially in connection with the material once obtained from it for smallpox vaccination.
Note
Here vaccine is the name of the illness itself, which is the meaning the French borrowing described under the modern noun brought with it. The sense is obsolete. A modern reader who meets a dairymaid recovering "from the vaccine" should read it as cowpox, and anyone writing today should simply say cowpox.
- 10To treat a person or animal with a vaccine in order to produce immunity against a disease.
Parishes hired men to vaccine the poor at public expense.
[S]ince you have decided that the boy shall be vaccined, let us send directly for the surgeon and have it done, and then he will be safe.
1804, Maria Edgeworth, “To-morrow. Chapter VII. Moral Habits Seldom Changed by Change of Fortune.”Similarvaccinate, immunize, inoculate
Note
The shorter verb that vaccinate replaced, with regular forms: vaccines, vaccining, vaccined. It is transitive, taking the person or animal treated as its object, and sits naturally in the passive. Maria Edgeworth writes in 1804 that a boy "shall be vaccined" before the surgeon is sent for. The verb is archaic now, so use vaccinate, immunize or inoculate unless you are deliberately writing in an older voice.
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Practice
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Origins
A learned borrowing from Latin vaccīnus ('of or derived from a cow'), from vacca ('cow') plus the adjective-forming suffix -īnus. The medical sense goes back to the early use of the cowpox virus against smallpox, reflected in New Latin variolae vaccīnae ('cowpox'), coined by the British physician Edward Jenner (1749–1823).
The noun is probably derived partly from the adjective vaccine (see etymology 1) and partly borrowed from French vaccine and vaccin ('cowpox; vaccination against smallpox using cowpox material'), both from Latin vaccīnus. The verb is derived from the noun. Cognates include Italian vaccina, Portuguese vacina, and Spanish vacuna.