allergy

English

Etymology

Borrowed from German Allergie. Coined by Austrian pediatrician Clemens von Pirquet in 1906 from Ancient Greek ἄλλος (állos, “other”) + ἔργον (érgon, “work, activity”), on the model of Energie.

Pronunciation

  • enPR: ălʹər-jē; IPA(key): /ˈæl.əɹ.d͡ʒi/
    • (UK) IPA(key): [ˈæl.ə.dʒi]
    • Audio (Southern England):(file)
    • (US) IPA(key): [ˈæl.ɚ.d͡ʒi]
  • (Indic) IPA(key): /aˈlɜː(ɾ).d͡ʒi/
  • Hyphenation: al‧ler‧gy

Noun

allergy (plural allergies)

  2. (medicine, immunology, loosely) A disorder of the immune system causing adverse reactions to substances (allergens) not harmful to most and marked by the body's production of histamines and associated with atopy, anaphylaxis, and asthma; any condition of hypersensitivity to a substance.
    2. (medicine, immunology, strictly) Specifically, hypersensitivity of class I in the modern classification thereof: the immunoglobulin E–mediated type.
  3. (informal, figuratively) An antipathy, as toward a person or activity.
    He has an allergy to reality TV.

Usage notes

  • From its coining in 1906 until the 1960s, the word allergy always covered any kind of hypersensitivity reactions. Since then, the word also has a stricter sense referring specifically to only a subset of them, mediated by a certain antibody. Both senses remain in wide use.

Synonyms

Hypernyms

Derived terms

Descendants

  • → Bengali: এলার্জি (elarji)
  • → Cebuano: alerdyi
  • → Hindi: एलर्जी (elarjī)
  • → Urdu: الرجی (alarjī)

Translations

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See also

Anagrams

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