antigen

Etymology

It is borrowed from German Antigen,^[2][3][4][5] from French antigène,^[3][4][5] formed from anti- and -gène.^[4] The OED instead treats the word as formed from English anti- + -gen after the German and French words;^[6] Merriam-Webster calls it International Scientific Vocabulary.^[7] Barnhart and Etymonline take the first part as a shortening of Antikörper (“antibody”) or of antibody itself,^[2][3] and Collins and Dictionary.com form it from anti(body) and -gen.^[8][9] The OED finds the French adjective antigène in 1899, in a paper by L. Deutsch in the Annales de l'Institut Pasteur, the French noun by 1904, and the German noun by 1905.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

A substance that causes the body to produce antibodies: 1905, in the Journal of the American Medical Association, in the OED;^[6] Merriam-Webster dates it to 1904,^[7] Barnhart and Etymonline to 1908.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

The OED's revised definition describes an antigen as usually a protein or polysaccharide, or part of one, not normally present in the body, that can provoke antibodies or another immune response,^[6] and Merriam-Webster adds the sense of a substance that reacts with an antibody in complement fixation.^[7] Its adjective is antigenic, recorded from the early 20th century.^[4]

Timeline

• 1904 – a substance that stimulates the production of antibodies.^[7] The OED's first English example is from 1905.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A substance, usually a protein or polysaccharide foreign to the body, that stimulates the production of antibodies or another immune response when it enters the body.^[8][7][6]
2. A substance that combines with a specific antibody, as in complement fixation.^[7]

Word family

• antigenic
• antigenically
• antigenicity
• alloantigen
• autoantigen
• isoantigen
• self-antigen
• antigen-presenting cell

Related words

• antibody
• anti-
• -gen

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
9. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House