vaccine

Etymology 1

PIE word *woḱéh₂ of a vaccine (noun sense 1.1) against COVID-19.]] Learned borrowing from Latin vaccīnus (“of or derived from a cow”) + English -ine (suffix meaning ‘of or pertaining to’ forming adjectives). Vaccīnus is derived from vacca (“cow (female cattle)”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *woḱéh₂ (“(female) cow”)) + -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).

adj

1. (historical)
   1. (medicine) Of, pertaining to, caused by, or characteristic of cowpox.
   2. (immunology) Of or pertaining to cowpox as a source of material for vaccination against smallpox; also, of or pertaining to such material used for vaccination.
2. (archaic) Of, pertaining to, or derived from cattle.

Etymology 2

The noun is probably partly: * derived from vaccine (adjective) (see etymology 1); and * borrowed from French vaccine (“cowpox (short for variole vaccine); vaccination against smallpox using material from cowpox”), vaccin (“cowpox material used for smallpox vaccination”), both noun uses of vaccin (adjective), from Latin vaccīnus (see etymology 1). The verb is derived from the noun. cognates * Italian vaccina * Portuguese vacina * Spanish vacuna

noun

1. (immunology)
   1. 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. The process of vaccination; immunization, inoculation.
      My dog has had two vaccines this year.
   3. (historical) material taken from cowpox pustules used for vaccination against smallpox.
   4. (also medicine, obsolete) The disease cowpox, especially as a source of material for vaccination against smallpox.
2. (figurative)
   1. Something defensive or protective in nature, like a vaccine (sense 1.1).
   2. (computing) A software program which protects computers against, or detects and neutralizes, computer viruses and other types of malware; an antivirus.

verb

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