Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun An abnormally high sensitivity to certain substances, such as pollens, foods, or microorganisms. Common indications of allergy may include sneezing, itching, and skin rashes.
  • noun Informal An adverse sentiment; antipathy.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun hypersensitivity to a particular substance.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun pathology, immunology 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.
  • noun pathology Any condition of hypersensitivity to a substance.
  • noun Altered susceptibility to a first treatment as exhibited in reaction to a subsequent one.
  • noun informal An antipathy, as toward a person or activity.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun hypersensitivity reaction to a particular allergen; symptoms can vary greatly in intensity

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[German Allergie : Greek allos, other; see allo– + Greek ergon, action; see werg- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From German Allergie. Coined by Austrian pediatrician Clemens von Pirquet in 1906 from Ancient Greek ἄλλος (allos, "other") + ἔργον (ergon, "work, activity"), on the model of Energie.

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Examples

  • Cow's milk protein allergy is the overall term for several types of dairy allergies, which can be to the casein or to the whey or both.

    Archive 2007-02-01 Steve Carper 2007

  • Cow's milk protein allergy is associated with these symptoms but I know of no studies that says LI is.

    More Bad Info from the UK Steve Carper 2007

  • Cow's milk protein allergy is the overall term for several types of dairy allergies, which can be to the casein or to the whey or both.

    Lactose and Casein Steve Carper 2007

  • Cows milk protein allergy is the most common cause of food allergy in infants and affects up to 3 per cent of babies, the survey said.

    Archive 2006-11-01 Steve Carper 2006

  • Cows milk protein allergy is the most common cause of food allergy in infants and affects up to 3 per cent of babies, the survey said.

    Dairy Allergies Misdiagnosed by Doctors Steve Carper 2006

  • Dixon-Woods agrees that better food labeling, more education and stricter regulation is necessary to reduce misunderstanding and negative attitudes about nut allergies -- especially in the United States, where peanut-based products are ubiquitous and the word allergy is frequently used to describe non-life-threatening conditions such as hay fever.

    The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com The Huffington Post News Editors 2011

  • Young said he prefers to use the word "allergy" to describe alcoholism.

    msnbc.com: Top msnbc.com headlines 2011

  • He used his question time largely to criticize Republicans as suffering from what he called an "allergy to science and scientists."

    NYT > Home Page By JOHN M. BRODER 2011

  • Young said he prefers to use the word "allergy" to describe alcoholism.

    msnbc.com: Top msnbc.com headlines 2011

  • Egg allergy is one of the more common pediatric food allergies.

    Vaccine Science 2010

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