vaccine

Meaning

Adj

1. (historical, not-comparable) Of, pertaining to, caused by, or characteristic of cowpox.
2. (historical, not-comparable) Of or pertaining to cowpox as a source of material for vaccination against smallpox; also, of or pertaining to such material used for vaccination.
3. (archaic, not-comparable) Of, pertaining to, or derived from cattle.

Noun

1. (countable, uncountable) A substance given to stimulate a body's production of antibodies and provide immunity against a disease without causing the disease itself in the treatment, prepared from the agent that causes the disease (or a derivative of it; or a related, also effective, but safer disease), or a synthetic substitute; also, a dose of such a substance.
2. (countable, uncountable) The process of vaccination; immunization, inoculation.
3. (countable, historical, uncountable) The material taken from cowpox pustules used for vaccination against smallpox.
4. (also, countable, obsolete, uncountable) The disease cowpox, especially as a source of material for vaccination against smallpox.
5. (countable, figuratively, uncountable) Something defensive or protective in nature, like a vaccine (sense 1.1).
6. (countable, figuratively, uncountable) A software program which protects computers against, or detects and neutralizes, computer viruses and other types of malware; an antivirus.

Verb

Synonym of vaccinate (“to treat (a person or an animal) with a vaccine to produce immunity against a disease”).

Synonyms

vaccinum

antitoxin

vaccination

antibody

jab

smallpox

vaccinal

PDT

bacterin

vaccin

virus protection software

blighting fungi

bacterial vaccine

vaccine matter

pertussis-diphtheria-tetanus

antivirus software

graft

inoculum

Translations

vaccin

Impfstoff

vacuna

vaccino

🐮

vaccin

vacina

Vakzine

entstof

vacuna

εμβόλιο

vaccine

لقاح

βατσίνα

aşı

Pronounced as (IPA)

/vækˈsin/

Etymology

Cognate with Italian: vaccina

Cognate with Portuguese: vacina

Cognate with Spanish: vacuna

In summary

PIE word
*woḱéh₂
Learned borrowing from Latin vaccīnus (“of or derived from a cow”), from vacca (“cow (female cattle)”) + -īnus (suffix meaning ‘of or pertaining to’ forming adjectives). Sense 1 refers to the early use of the cowpox virus as a vaccination against smallpox: see New Latin variolae vaccīnae (“cowpox”, plural, literally “infectious diseases of cattle causing pustules”), coined by the British physician and scientist Edward Jenner (1749–1823).