vaccin

Forms

vaccin n (plural vaccinuri)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French vaccin, with Latin vaccīnus (“of a cow”) and Italian vaccino as further models; the DLR adds the feminine forms vaccine, vaccīna and vaccina and German Vakzin.^[2][3][4][1] The old texts used the feminine vaccină and its variants first, and the neuter form prevailed later.^[3] Scriban explained it as the Latin adjective used as a noun, with vīrus understood.^[5]

The French masculine was remade from the feminine, the name of the cowpox, on the model of the Latin adjective.^[1] Nocentini explains the Italian noun as a calque of the French, shortened from virus vaccin, the cowpox virus from which the first vaccine was made.^[6] The Latin adjective is formed on vacca (“cow”), the source of Romanian vacă.^[7][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

MDA2 dates the first record to Piscupescu's health manual Oglinda sănătății of 1829, where the word is the feminine vacțină, the cowpox matter used to inoculate people against smallpox: „altoirea vărsatului de vacă, ce-i zice vacțină” “the grafting of cowpox, which they call vacțină”.^[4][3]

Semantic evolution

In the first half of the 19th century the word named the lymph taken from cowpox pustules and the inoculation against smallpox itself, in many spellings: vacțină, vațină, vacină, vacsină.^[3][4] Its use was promoted in sermons and calendars; a bilet de vacsină “vaccination certificate” is recorded in Oltenia in 1855.^[3] Costinescu in 1870 has the masculine vaccin for the virus.^[9]

With Pasteur's work the word widened from the smallpox lymph to any preparation of weakened germs;^[5][3] Scriban cites the vaccine against rabies, and Babeș writes of larger doses of vaccine against wolf bites.^[5][3] The feminine vaccină was kept for the cattle disease itself.^[3][4] Colloquially, vaccin is also the vaccination and the scar it leaves.^[2][3]

Timeline

• 1829 – vacțină, the cowpox matter, in Piscupescu's health manual.^[4][3]
• 1855 – bilet de vacsină, a vaccination certificate, in an Oltenian document.^[3]
• 1870 – the masculine vaccin “virus” in Costinescu's dictionary.^[9]
• 1929 – Șăineanu defines it as the cowpox virus that protects against smallpox.^[10]
• 1939 – Scriban's definition covers any inoculated substance that gives immunity.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A vaccine: a biological preparation of weakened germs or their products, given by injection or by mouth to give immunity against an infectious disease or as a treatment.^[2][4][1]
2. (colloquial) The act of vaccinating; vaccinare.^[2]
3. The mark or scar left on the body by a vaccination.^[2][3]
4. (historical) The lymph from cowpox pustules once used to inoculate people against smallpox.^[4][3]

Word family

• vaccina
• vaccinare

Related words

• vacă
• Latin vaccīnus

Usage notes

The plural is vaccinuri;^[2][3] vaccine was the old plural.^[2][3] The expression a(-și) face un vaccin means to get vaccinated.^[11]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1180
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. vaccin
4. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1404
5. ^ a b c d Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1, 1388
6. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Graur, Alexandru (1980), Cuvinte înrudite, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică, p. 268
9. ^ a b Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 672
10. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 684
11. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 4, 610