Vaccination using cowpox virus (originally derived from cattle) to protect against smallpox in humans.
From Latin bovis (cow) plus vaccination. This technical medical term describes the practice of vaccinating humans with material from cattle, which was revolutionary when Edward Jenner developed it in 1796.
Jenner's discovery that milkmaids rarely got smallpox because they caught cowpox from cattle was a turning point in medicine—he deliberately infected an 8-year-old boy with cowpox, and it protected him from smallpox! The word 'vaccine' itself literally comes from 'vacca' (cow).
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