Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Inoculation with the virus of smallpox. See inoculation, Also variolization.

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

  • noun (Med.) Inoculation with smallpox.

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

  • noun historical The inoculation of a person with smallpox so as to induce a mild form of the illness and subsequent immunity to it.

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

  • noun the obsolete process of inoculating a susceptible person with material taken from a vesicle of a person who has smallpox

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Compare variola, -ation.

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Examples

  • As the virus existed possibly as far back as 1000 BCE, and as the first attempts at vaccination called variolation were in the 10th century, to claim that the colonists didn't understand the disease and didn't know what they were doing...

    languagehat.com: LIKE A PHONOGRAPH. 2004

  • Inoculation, hereafter referred to as variolation, was likely practiced in Africa, India, and China long before the 18th century, when it was introduced to Europe.

    A Diamond's Eye View of the World 2009

  • Using the disease to directly infect a person is called variolation, with the intent of resisting the same disease later.

    Citizendium, the Citizens' Compendium - Recent changes [en] 2008

  • Contrary to Montagu’s enthusiastic claim, however, inoculation—which was also known as variolation, in honor of the disease it sought to combat—did not render smallpox entirely harmless: Inoculees still got sick; that, after all, was the whole point of undergoing the procedure in the first place, since a bout of smallpox was the only known way to achieve lifelong immunity.

    The Panic Virus Seth Mnookin 2011

  • Contrary to Montagu’s enthusiastic claim, however, inoculation—which was also known as variolation, in honor of the disease it sought to combat—did not render smallpox entirely harmless: Inoculees still got sick; that, after all, was the whole point of undergoing the procedure in the first place, since a bout of smallpox was the only known way to achieve lifelong immunity.

    The Panic Virus Seth Mnookin 2011

  • Contrary to Montagu’s enthusiastic claim, however, inoculation—which was also known as variolation, in honor of the disease it sought to combat—did not render smallpox entirely harmless: Inoculees still got sick; that, after all, was the whole point of undergoing the procedure in the first place, since a bout of smallpox was the only known way to achieve lifelong immunity.

    The Panic Virus Seth Mnookin 2011

  • By the time the United States Constitution was adopted in Philadelphia in 1787, the benefits of inoculation were clear: When naturally occurring, smallpox was lethal up to a third of the time; when the result of variolation, that ratio dropped to under 2 percent.8 At the time, there was only a vague understanding of precisely why inoculation was so effective.

    The Panic Virus Seth Mnookin 2011

  • Determined not to repeat the mistakes of Quebec, Washington spent much of 1776 torn about whether to require variolation for new conscripts.

    The Panic Virus Seth Mnookin 2011

  • By the time the United States Constitution was adopted in Philadelphia in 1787, the benefits of inoculation were clear: When naturally occurring, smallpox was lethal up to a third of the time; when the result of variolation, that ratio dropped to under 2 percent.8 At the time, there was only a vague understanding of precisely why inoculation was so effective.

    The Panic Virus Seth Mnookin 2011

  • Determined not to repeat the mistakes of Quebec, Washington spent much of 1776 torn about whether to require variolation for new conscripts.

    The Panic Virus Seth Mnookin 2011

  • Also known as engrafting, variolation consisted of taking pus from a person afflicted with smallpox and putting it beneath an uninfected person’s skin.

    Before Vaccines, Variolation Was Seriously Trendy | JSTOR Daily Allison Miller 2020

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