allergy
UK [ˈæl.ə.dʒi] · US [ˈæl.ɚ.d͡ʒi] noun
Forms allergies
- noun (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. “My dad can't live with pets because of an allergy.”
- noun (medicine, immunology, strictly) Specifically, hypersensitivity of class I in the modern classification thereof: the immunoglobulin E–mediated type.
- noun (informal, figuratively) An antipathy, as toward a person or activity. “He has an allergy to reality TV.”
Synonyms
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.
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 — from the Wiktionary entry “allergy”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details