Inoculate

Part of speech: verb

Pronunciation: /ɪˈnɒkjuleɪt/

Definitions

1. To introduce a microorganism or vaccine into a living organism to stimulate immunity ; to implant an idea or attitude in someone's mind to influence their thoughts or actions
2. To administer a substance like a vaccine to promote resistance to a disease ; to instill a particular belief or viewpoint within a person's mindset
3. To insert a vaccine or microbe into a host for the purpose of protection against illness ; to implant a concept or bias to shape someone's perspectives

Etymology: The surprising starting point is the garden, not the clinic. Latin "inoculare" meant to graft a bud or eye from one plant into another, literally "to put an eye into," from "oculus," the word for eye. Gardeners used the image of a bud as an eye to be set into a host branch, and the same idea of implanting something living into something else carried over to people. The English word appeared around 1440 as "inoculaten," meaning "to graft," so for its first few centuries it stayed in the orchard. The medical sense of introducing matter into the body to create protection came later, and it is this sense that gave the word its link to immunisation. The verb in use today is in fact a back-formation from "inoculation," the noun, and the "-ate" ending was attached to that noun's stem rather than inherited directly from Latin. Figurative use, implanting an idea or attitude in someone's mind, grew out of that medical sense, so the word moved from plant grafting to the body and finally to the mind.

Synonyms: vaccinate, immunize, protect, shield, preserve

Antonyms: infect, contaminate, expose, harm, endanger