Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The usually mild, cutaneous and sometimes systemic reaction in individuals who have been inoculated with smallpox vaccine.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A specific eruptive disease occurring in cattle, especially in milch cows.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Med.) Cowpox; vaccina. See cowpox.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun medicine An infection of cowpox; or the virus which causes this infection

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a viral disease of cattle causing a mild skin disease affecting the udder; formerly used to inoculate humans against smallpox
  • noun a local infection induced in humans by inoculation with the virus causing cowpox in order to confer resistance to smallpox; normally lasts three weeks and leaves a pitted scar

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[New Latin vaccīnia, from Latin vaccīnus, of cows; see vaccine.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From the genus name Vaccinia

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Examples

  • (The smallpox vaccine is based on a live virus called vaccinia, which is closely related to the smallpox virus and protects against it, but normally does not cause disease itself.)

    Scared Of Smallpox 2007

  • And in the past, when bandages weren't as effective, and the cleaning of hospital linens not as stringent as they are today, the transmission of vaccinia from the vaccine to others wasn't rampant:

    Medpundit 2003

  • And in the past, when bandages weren't as effective, and the cleaning of hospital linens not as stringent as they are today, the transmission of vaccinia from the vaccine to others wasn't rampant:

    Archive 2003-03-01 2003

  • "The vaccine is not smallpox virus, but it's a closely related virus called vaccinia," she added.

    Daily News & Analysis 2010

  • However, a virus called vaccinia spreads four times faster than what was thought possible.

    Livescience.com 2010

  • The inoculation of man with the contents of such a vesicle produces a mild form of disease known as vaccinia, which protects the individual from smallpox.

    Disease and Its Causes William Thomas Councilman

  • Researchers used the same strain of virus that's used in the smallpox vaccine, called vaccinia virus, because of its natural ability to replicate itself in cancer cells, the report said.

    StarTribune.com rss feed 2011

  • The version used to eradicate smallpox worldwide was based on a different, but closely related, pox virus called vaccinia, according to Jonathan Tucker, a biosecurity expert and author of "Scourge: The Once and Future Threat of Smallpox" Atlantic Monthly Press, 2001.

    Breaking News: CBS News 2011

  • Previously, viruses were thought to spread by entering a cell, replicating there, and then being released to infect new cells, so that the rate of spread of a called vaccinia spreads in a different and much faster way, according to a new study in the journal

    THE MEDICAL NEWS 2010

  • Smallpox vaccines are made from vaccinia, a milder related virus.

    Experts debate destroying last smallpox viruses 2011

Comments

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  • "The virus that causes cowpox is called "vaccinia," taking its name from vaccination."

    —John M. Barry, The Great Influenza (NY: Penguin Books, 2004), 20

    February 11, 2009