Medicine & BodyGreek → English
Allergy
/ˈælərdʒi/noun
An immune reaction to something that is harmless to most people.
The Greek roots
ἄλλος
állos
other, different
ἔργον
érgon
work, action
Literally: “other working”
The story of the word
Clemens von Pirquet, a Viennese paediatrician, coined Allergie in 1906 for any altered reactivity of the body, meaning it to cover protective immunity and damaging hypersensitivity alike, and he was irritated when usage narrowed it to the second. He built it on ἐνέργεια, energy, with ἄλλος swapped in: a changed working. The same ἄλλος gives allegory, speaking otherwise, and parallel.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → German coinage → English
- First recorded
- 1911
The same roots elsewhere
Other languages reached for exactly the same Greek pieces.
Same family
allegoryallopathyenergyergonomicsparallel
In a sentence
His allergy to walnuts was found the hard way at a birthday party.
The clinic tests for the six commonest allergies in one visit.