Vaccinees

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Individuals who have been given a vaccine to develop immunity against diseases
2. Persons who have undergone a vaccination process to safeguard against infections
3. People who have been administered a vaccine to protect them from specific illnesses

Etymology: The word "vaccinee" is "vaccine" with the suffix "-ee", which in English marks a person who undergoes or receives the action named by the base word, as in "employee" or "trainee". So a vaccinee is someone who receives a vaccine. "Vaccine" itself comes from Latin "vaccinus", meaning "of or from cows", built on "vacca", "cow". The link is Edward Jenner's smallpox work, which used cowpox material, and the sense of "vaccine" as a preparation for immunity grew out of that cow-derived origin. The "-ee" ending has a longer journey. It descends from Latin "-atus" through Old French "-é", and it reached English in Middle English as "-ee" through French legal and administrative terms, where it named the party on the receiving end of an action, such as a grantee or lessee. English then made it productive, attaching it freely to verbs and nouns to create new person-nouns. Because "vaccinee" is a plain formation from existing parts, its plural "vaccinees" simply adds "-s" to the noun, with no change in form or sense.

Synonyms: immunized individuals, vaccinated persons