Translation
allergy
Word origin
Coined in 1906 by the Viennese paediatrician Clemens von Pirquet from Greek allos, other, and ergon, work or reaction: the body reacting in an altered way. It reached Esperanto as an already international medical term.
- Origin
- Greek
- Root
- allos + ergon
- English cognates
- allergy, allegory, energy
Examples
.
I have an allergy to milk.
.
His allergy appears every spring.
.
The skin went red because of the allergy.
The tempting parse is - plus ergio, and it is a mirage in both halves.
Yes, al is a live Esperanto preposition, and yes, you do
say . But the - in this word is Greek allos, other,
with one of its two Ls worn off, and there is no Esperanto root ergi- at all.
Strip nothing. - is one piece.
The genuine sibling is next door and does have a real Greek seam:
energio is plus ergon, work inside a thing.
The -ergi- you can half-see in both words is the Greek ergon, which also
gave English erg, surgery and organ. That is a shared history, not an
Esperanto affix, and it does not license you to build new words with it.
The everyday vocabulary around it: alergia for allergic, o for the
person who has one, and the preposition is . alergia poleno
is how you say it at the table, and a is a food allergy.
Where this fits
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alergio: worksheet, infographic and listicle
Free printable study downloads for the Esperanto word "alergio" (allergy): a worksheet with the answer key built in, an infographic, and a sentence listicle. Open any one to view, print or save.
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Start your free weekThis word is part of lesson 41.