Vaccines take their name from vaccinia, the virus that caused cowpox. It was the original ingredient used to vaccinate people against smallpox. Stefan Riedel, a pathologist at the Baylor University Medical Center, offers a detailed history of the centuries-long fight against smallpox. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Vaccine Etymology”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
This is Edward Neal. I’m in Richardson, Texas.
Hi, Edward.
You know, I had a question for you guys concerning the origin of a word. I had a friend of mine say something about the word vaccinium being Latin for berries, and that’s where the origin of the word vaccine came from.
And so what happened was controversial for me was that I went to a class here recently, and I had a professor tell me that the origin came from the word cow. And I don’t know it right off the top of my head in Latin, but I know in Spanish it’s vaca. So vaccine. Or cowboys, vaqueros.
So I was led to believe it was from the word cow. So I told him this. And so we kind of let it off to a standoff. And I started doing some research on the Internet. And both sound pretty legitimate. And nobody really has an answer for me. So I thought maybe you guys might.
Oh, boy, do we. I know the word baka with a B is berry in Latin, B-A-C-A. And so I’m not sure what he’s talking about. But that would explain the confusion. But we know because this etymology is solid and known.
Yeah, yeah. It’s very clear that vaccinia was the virus that caused cowpox. And cowpox virus was originally used to inoculate people against smallpox.
Oh, wow. Yeah, by Edward Jenner in the 1790s. Yeah, and since that was the first big vaccination, I mean, that was when vaccination began, it took the name of that first virus. Jenner’s great discovery, and he’s not the only one who did it. Many people were thinking about this. People knew that dairy maids, women who worked with cows, didn’t get smallpox. They tended to get cowpox. And that was what he popularized, the idea of vaccinating people with cowpox, which is much less lethal.
Right, but cause the same antibodies to appear in the body that would fight smallpox as well.
Right, right. So it’s the cowpox virus that gives us the word vaccinia and vaccination.
So not the berry.
Not the berry.
Okay. So that’s vaccinia, not vaccinium for the U.S.
Okay. Well, I will regroup my knowledge and post it to him and see where that all goes with all that.
Cool.
Thanks, Edward.
Yeah, well, thank you. I really appreciate you guys taking my call.
Sure, take care.
Bye-bye.
Bye-bye.
So to recap, Martha, Edward was saying that the word came from cow, which you and I believe to be true. His friend was saying it came from a word for berry, but what we find is that there’s just a coincidence that these two Latin words are similarly spelled, but there’s no etymological history whatsoever, and the word vaccine has anything to do with berries.
Correct. There’s a similar-looking Latin word that means blueberry, but it has nothing to do with cowpox.
Okay, very good. 877-929-9673, words@waywordradio.org. Call us with your language questions, send them to us in email. We’d love to hear about them.
