Vaccine Is Named After a Cow
A vaccine trains the immune system against a disease. The word comes from the Latin for cow, because the first one used cowpox.
A vaccine trains the immune system to recognise a pathogen before it is encountered. The name records the first one: Edward Jenner used material from cowpox to protect against smallpox in 1796, and *vacca* is Latin for cow. Louis Pasteur later proposed keeping the word for all such preparations in Jenner's honour.
- A preparation giving immunity. *A flu vaccine.*
- Vaccination — the act of giving it. *A vaccination programme.*
- Vaccinate — to administer one. *Vaccinate the herd.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | vaccine | A new vaccine. |
| Plural | vaccines | Childhood vaccines. |
| Verb | vaccinate | Vaccinate early. |
| Noun | vaccination | Routine vaccination. |
| Related | immunisation | An immunisation schedule. |
How it is used in a sentence
- The vaccine is given in two doses.Schedule.
- Smallpox was declared eradicated in 1980.The only human disease so far eradicated.
- Herd immunity protects those who cannot be vaccinated.Public health.
Kinds of vaccine
- Live attenuated — a weakened form of the pathogen
- Inactivated — a killed pathogen
- Subunit — only part of the pathogen, such as a protein
- mRNA — instructions for cells to make a protein
- Viral vector — a harmless virus carrying the instructions
From Latin *vaccinus*, of a cow, from *vacca*. Jenner's *variolae vaccinae* meant cow smallpox, and Pasteur generalised the term in the 1880s.
Vaccination or immunisation?
Vaccination is giving the vaccine. Immunisation is the process of becoming protected, which vaccination is intended to produce.
What is herd immunity?
When enough of a population is immune that the pathogen cannot spread easily, protecting those who are not immune themselves.