Meaning

verb introduce an idea or attitude into the mind of

verb introduce a microorganism into

verb perform vaccinations or produce immunity in by inoculation

originFirst 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).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0