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

Verb

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ɪˈnɒkjuleɪt/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ɪˈnɑːkjuleɪt/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Noun

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ɪˈnɒkjulɪt/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ɪˈnɑːkjulɪt/

Verb

inoculate (third-person singular simple present inoculates, present participle inoculating, simple past and past participle inoculated)

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]

   Synonyms: immunize, vaccinate, (archaic) vaccine

   • 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.

   • 2004 October 29, Marco R. Della Cava, “Vaccine shortage pricks tempers”, in Statesman Journal, volume 152, number 214, Salem, OR, page 2A:

     The sense that it takes outrageous fortune to get inoculated echoes here in the Bay Area, where pharmacies have canceled flu-shot clinics, doctors turn away pleading patients and health officials are reduced to telling panicked callers that they should practice good personal hygiene.

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

   (Can we add an example for this sense?)

3. (transitive) To add one substance to another.

   Synonym: spike

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

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

   to inoculate the bud of one tree or plant into another

   to inoculate a tree

   • c. 1420, anonymous author, edited by Barton Lodge, On husbondrie‎^[1], Published for the Early English Text Society, by N. Trübner & Co., translation of original by Rutilius Taurus Aemilianus Palladius, published 1872:

     And in Aprill figtreen inoculate

5. (figurative, transitive) To introduce into the mind (used especially of harmful ideas or principles). [from a. 1600]

   Synonyms: imbue, implant

   to inoculate someone with treason or infidelity

   • c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i], page 265, line 118:

     For vertue cannot ſo innocculate our old ſtocke, but we ſhall relliſh of it.

   • 1860, John Watts, The Christian Doctrine of Man's Depravity Refuted, Watts & Company, page 14:

     The Church tries to inoculate humanity with the imaginary goodness drawn down from a fabulous heaven, and from a priest-manufactured God.

Related terms

• inoculant
• inoculation
• inoculative
• inoculator
• inoculum

 

Translations

to provide immunity

• Armenian: պատվաստել (hy) (patvastel)
• Azerbaijani: aşılamaq, peyvənd etmək
• Bulgarian: ваксинирам (vaksiniram)
• Catalan: inocular (ca)
• Dutch: inenten (nl)
• Esperanto: inokuli
• Finnish: rokottaa (fi)
• French: inoculer (fr)
• German: impfen (de), inokulieren (uncommon)
• Greek: εμβολιάζω (el) (emvoliázo)
• Kyrgyz: эмдөө (ky) (emdöö)
• Portuguese: inocular (pt)
• Russian: привива́ть (ru) impf (privivátʹ), приви́ть (ru) pf (privítʹ)
• Slovak: očkovať, zaočkovať
• Slovene: cepiti
• Spanish: inocular (es)
• Swedish: inokulera (sv), ympa (sv)
• Vietnamese: chích ngừa, tiêm chủng (vi), chích (vi), chủng (vi), chủng ngừa (vi), tiêm phòng (vi)

to safeguard as if by inoculation

• Bulgarian: ваксинирам (vaksiniram)
• Finnish: rokottaa (fi)

to add one substance to another

• Dutch: inoculeren (nl), enten (nl)
• Finnish: lisätä (fi)
• Swedish: inympa (sv), inokulera (sv)

to graft by inserting buds

• Azerbaijani: calamaq, aşılamaq
• Bashkir: ялғау (yalğaw)
• Bulgarian: ашладисвам (bg) (ašladisvam)
• Finnish: silmuttaa
• German: okulieren (de), äugeln (de)
• Slovak: štepiť, zaštepiť

to introduce into the mind

• Azerbaijani: aşılamaq
• Bulgarian: внушавам (bg) (vnušavam)
• Finnish: saastuttaa (fi) (with something harmful)
• Slovak: naočkovať, naočkovávať

See also

• immunize
• vaccinate

Noun

inoculate (plural inoculates)

1. Synonym of inoculum

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

Italian

Etymology 1

Verb

inoculate

1. inflection of inoculare:
   1. second-person plural present indicative
   2. second-person plural imperative

Etymology 2

Participle

inoculate f pl

1. feminine plural of inoculato

Anagrams

• cautelino

Latin

Verb

inoculāte

1. second-person plural present active imperative of inoculō

Spanish

Verb

inoculate

1. second-person singular voseo imperative of inocular combined with te