Medicine & BodyGreek → English
Histamine
/ˈhɪstəmiːn/noun
A compound released by mast cells in allergic reactions, causing itching, swelling and dilated blood vessels.
The Greek roots
ἱστός
histós
web, loom, tissue
Literally: “tissue amine”
Follow a root:ἱστός3 words
The story of the word
Henry Dale and Patrick Laidlaw isolated it around 1910 and named it for where it comes from, tissue, plus its chemical class, amine. ἱστός meant the upright loom and the web woven on it, and anatomists borrowed the weaving image for the fabric of the body, which is also why the study of it is histology. Antihistamines work by blocking the receptors rather than removing the histamine.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → scientific coinage → English
- First recorded
- 1910s
Same family
histologyhistogramantihistamine
In a sentence
Pollen sets off a flood of histamine, and the sneezing follows.