Etymograph

English

inoculate

Inoculate comes from Latin inoculō ‘to ingraft an eye or bud of one plant into…’, and perhaps goes back to Proto-Indo-European *h₃ekʷ- ‘to see’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*h₃ekʷ-1‘to see’uncertain
  2. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*okʷ(e)los1reconstructed
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEoculus2‘eye’
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEinoculō3‘to ingraft an eye or bud of one plant into (another), implant’
  5. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEinoculātus3perfect passive participle of inoculō
  6. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500inoculaten3‘to graft’
  7. Englishearliest quotation c. 1420inoculate3

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Latin oculus
  2. 2 Wiktionary, Latin inoculo
  3. 3 Wiktionary, English inoculate
  4. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1420, anonymous author, On husbondrie: “And in Aprill figtreen inoculate”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*h₃ekʷ-Wiktionary, Latin oculus‘to see’uncertain
  2. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*okʷ(e)losWiktionary, Latin oculusreconstructed
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEoculusWiktionary, Latin inoculo‘eye’
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEinoculōWiktionary, English inoculate‘to ingraft an eye or bud of one plant into (another), implant’
  5. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEinoculātusWiktionary, English inoculateperfect passive participle of inoculō
  6. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500inoculatenWiktionary, English inoculate‘to graft’
  7. Englishearliest quotation c. 1420inoculateWiktionary, English inoculate. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1420, anonymous author, On husbondrie: “And in Aprill figtreen inoculate”

first attested First attested in c. 1440 (as stated in Wiktionary’s 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).

Full etymology on Wiktionary

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.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “inoculate”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entries for Latin oculus, Latin inoculo. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *h₃ekʷ- / inoculate

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