allergy

Etymology

It is borrowed from German Allergie,^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} coined in 1906 by the Austrian paediatrician Clemens von Pirquet (1874–1929) in the “Münchener medizinische Wochenschrift”.^[2][3][4][8] He formed it from Ancient Greek ἄλλος (állos, “other, different”)^[2][3][9] and ἔργον (érgon, “work, activity”),^[3][5][9][8] after Energie (“energy”), from ἐνέργεια (enérgeia).^{[2][6][7][10]} Etymonline traces the two Greek words to Proto-Indo-European *al- (“beyond”) and Proto-Indo-European *werg- (“to do”);^[3] the second is also the source of energy and is related to work.^[8][11] Klein instead takes it from New Latin allergia coined about 1905.^[9] The French allergie is recorded from 1909 in this sense.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Altered reactivity of the body to a foreign substance after an earlier exposure to it: 1908, in The Lancet.^[2][12] Etymonline and Barnhart date the English word to 1911.^[3][4] Ayto describes its original use as a changed physiological condition caused by an injection of a foreign substance.^[8]

Semantic evolution

In later medical use the word was narrowed to an abnormal, harmful form of this reaction: hypersensitivity to a substance such as a food, pollen or a drug.^[2][6][12] From 1916 it was used for an allergy to a particular substance, and in the same year, in an Ohio newspaper, figuratively for an antipathy to something or someone.^[2] The adjective allergic is recorded from 1908 in the OED and 1911 in Etymonline and Barnhart, who note the earlier allergique of 1906;^[2][3][4] its figurative sense, "averse to", dates from the late 1930s.^[2][3]

Timeline

• 1906 – German Allergie, coined by Clemens von Pirquet.^[2][3][4]
• 1908 – altered reactivity to a foreign substance, in The Lancet.^[2]
• 1916 – an allergy to a particular substance; figuratively, an antipathy.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. An abnormal sensitivity of the body to a substance, such as pollen, a food or a drug, that is harmless to most people, causing sneezing, itching, rashes or other symptoms: a peanut allergy.^[12][13][6]
2. In immunology, altered reactivity of the body to an antigen after a first exposure to it.^[12][2]
3. (informal) A strong dislike; an aversion: He has an allergy to paperwork.^[13][6][2]

Word family

• allergist
• allergen
• allergic

Related words

• energy
• work
• anergy
• allo-

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
9. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
13. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins