vaccine
pronunciation
How to pronounce vaccine in British English:
UK [ˈvæksiːn]
How to pronounce vaccine in American English:
US [vækˈsiːn]
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- Noun:
- immunogen consisting of a suspension of weakened or dead pathogenic cells injected in order to stimulate the production of antibodies
Word Origin
- vaccine
- vaccine: [18] Vaccine was adapted from Latin vaccīnus, which means literally ‘of a cow’ (it was a derivative of vacca ‘cow’, source of French vache). It was used by the British physician Edward Jenner at the end of the 18th century in the terms vaccine disease for ‘cowpox’, and hence vaccine inoculation for the technique he developed of preventing smallpox by injecting people with cowpox virus. The verb vaccinate was coined from it at the beginning of the 19th century, but vaccine itself was not used as a noun, meaning ‘inoculated material’, until the 1840s.
- vaccine (n.)
- "matter used in vaccination," 1846, from French vaccin, noun use of adjective, from Latin vaccina, fem. of vaccinus "pertaining to a cow" (see vaccination). Related: Vaccinal; vaccinic.
Example
- 1. We found two studies of the single mumps vaccine .
- 2. Production is slow ; there may not be enough vaccine to go round .
- 3. The mmr vaccine works very well .
- 4. A vaccine is the best hope .
- 5. The approval of the first cancer vaccine .