inoculate

English

WOTD – 12 November 2015

Alternative forms

• innoculate

Etymology

From Middle English inoculate, from Latin inoculātus, perfect passive participle of inoculō (“ingraft an eye or bud of one plant into (another), implant”), from in (“in”) + oculus (“an eye”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɪˈnɒkjuleɪt/
• IPA^(key): /ɪˈnɑːkjuleɪt/

• Audio (AU):

  (file)

Verb

1. (transitive, immunology) To introduce an antigenic substance or vaccine into something (e.g. the body) or someone, such as to produce immunity to a specific disease. [from c. 1722]
   • 1722, John Crawford, The Case of Inoculating the Small-pox Consider'd: And Its Advantages Asserted; in a Review of Dr. Wagstaffe's Letter. Wherein Every Thing that Author Has Advanced Against It, is Fully Confuted: and Inoculation Proved a Safe, Beneficial, and Laudable Practice.:

     But you would not willingly thus give up the Cause; therefore endeavour to draw others into your Assistance, and venture to assert, that by the Account Dr. Nettleton gives, as also by the best Observation upon those who have been Inoculated in this City, scarcely a fourth part of them have had a true and genuine Small Pox.

2. (transitive, by extension) To safeguard or protect something as if by inoculation.

   (Can we add an example for this sense?)

3. To add one substance to another; to spike.

   The culture medium was inoculated with selenium to investigate the rate of uptake.

4. To graft by inserting buds. [from c. 1420]

   to inoculate the bud of one tree or plant into another

   to inoculate a tree
5. (figurative) To introduce into the mind (used especially of harmful ideas or principles); to imbue; to implant. [from a. 1600]

   to inoculate someone with treason or infidelity

   • 1599-1602, William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act III, scene 1, line 118:

     virtue cannot so inoculate our old stock but we shall relish of it

Related terms

• inoculant
• inoculation
• inoculative
• inoculator
• inoculum

 

Translations

to provide immunity

• Armenian: պատվաստել (hy) (patvastel)
• Bulgarian: ваксинирам (vaksiniram)
• Catalan: inocular (ca)
• Dutch: inenten (nl)
• Esperanto: inokuli
• Finnish: rokottaa (fi)
• French: inoculer (fr)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• German: impfen (de)
• Greek: εμβολιάζω (el) (emvoliázo)
• Portuguese: inocular (pt)
• Russian: привива́ть (ru) impf (privivátʹ), приви́ть (ru) pf (privítʹ)
• Slovak: očkovať, zaočkovať
• Spanish: inocular (es)
• Swedish: inokulera (sv), ympa (sv)

to safeguard as if by inoculation

• Finnish: rokottaa (fi)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}

to add one substance to another

• Dutch: inoculeren (nl), enten (nl)
• Finnish: lisätä (fi)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Swedish: inympa, inokulera (sv)

to graft by inserting buds

• Bulgarian: ашладисвам (bg) (ašladisvam)
• Finnish: silmuttaa
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Slovak: štepiť, zaštepiť

to introduce into the mind

• Bulgarian: внушавам (bg) (vnušavam)
• Finnish: saastuttaa (fi) (with something harmful)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Slovak: naočkovať, naočkovávať

See also

• immunize / immunise
• vaccinate

Further reading

• “inoculate”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “inoculate”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

Anagrams

• lotucaine

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Italian

Verb

inoculate

1. second-person plural present indicative of inoculare
2. second-person plural imperative of inoculare
3. feminine plural of inoculato

Anagrams

• cautelino

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Latin

Verb

(deprecated template usage) inoculāte

1. second-person plural present active imperative of inoculō