Etymology

vaccine

vac·cine
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Today it means: Of, pertaining to, caused by, or characteristic of cowpox. Full definition →

Latin vaccīnus
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vaccine · adjective1

  1. Latin · learned borrowing fromvaccīnus“of or derived from a cow”
  2. English todayvaccine

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).

vaccine · noun, verb2

  1. Latin · derived fromvaccīnus
  2. French · borrowed fromvaccine“cowpox (short for variole vaccine); vaccination against smallpox using material from cowpox”
  3. English todayvaccine

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

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.