Inoculate
/ɪˈnɒk.jʊ.leɪt/noun
To introduce a vaccine or other substance into the body to produce immunity, or to insert something into another thing.
Did you know?The word entered English through a now-obsolete medical practice called inoculation, but its deepest Latin root, oculus, also gives us words like ocular and binocular — all orbiting the eye.
Etymological Timeline
Latin
Latin
inoculāre
“to graft or insert by budding, literally “to put into an eye””
Late Latin
Latin
in oculum
“into an eye”
16th Century
English
inoculate
“to graft a bud into a plant”
18th Century
English
inoculate
“to introduce material into a person or animal to induce immunity”
Modern English
English
inoculate
“to vaccinate or implant something into a body or system”