allergy

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English[edit]

English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

Etymology[edit]

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[edit]

  • enPR: ălʹər-jē; IPA(key): /ˈæl.əɹ.d͡ʒi/
  • Hyphenation: al‧ler‧gy

Noun[edit]

allergy (plural allergies)

  1. (medicine, immunology, broadly) 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.
    1. (medicine, immunology, strictly) Specifically, hypersensitivity of class I in the modern classification thereof: the immunoglobulin E–mediated type.
  2. (informal) An antipathy, as toward a person or activity.
    He has an allergy to reality TV.

Usage notes[edit]

From its coining in 1906 until the 1960s, the word allergy always covered any kind of (what humans now call) 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.

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Derived terms[edit]

Descendants[edit]

  • Cebuano: alerdyi

Translations[edit]

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

See also[edit]

Anagrams[edit]