Etymograph

English

inoculate

Inoculate comes from Latin inoculō ‘to ingraft an eye or bud of one plant into…’, and goes back to Proto-Italic *okʷ(e)los.

  1. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*okʷ(e)losreconstructed
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEoculus‘eye’
  3. Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEinoculō‘to ingraft an eye or bud of one plant into (another), implant’
  4. Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEinoculātusperfect passive participle of inoculō
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500inoculaten‘to graft’
  6. Englishearliest quotation c. 1420inoculate

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Earlier history uncertain.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*okʷ(e)losreconstructed
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEoculus‘eye’
  3. Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEinoculō‘to ingraft an eye or bud of one plant into (another), implant’
  4. Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEinoculātusperfect passive participle of inoculō
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500inoculaten‘to graft’
  6. Englishearliest quotation c. 1420inoculate

Earliest quotation: c. 1420, anonymous author, On husbondrie: “And in Aprill figtreen inoculate”.

first attested First attested in c. 1440 (as stated in the etymology)

The story

First attested in c. 1440; inherited from Middle English inoculaten (‘to graft’), from Latin inoculātus, perfect passive participle of inoculō (‘to ingraft an eye or bud of one plant into (another), implant’) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix)), from in- (‘in’) + oculus (‘an eye’) + -ō (verb-forming suffix).

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *h₃ekʷ- ‘to see’

eye, anthropology, optics, ogle, awk, synoptic, anthropoid, 39 more

through Latin oculus ‘eye’

oculus, ocular, monocle, doily, 17 more

Today it means

verb To introduce an antigenic substance or vaccine into something (e.g. the body) or someone, such as to produce immunity to a specific disease.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Proto-Italic *okʷ(e)los / inoculate

Shirt and support for this word