immunology
(ɪmjuːˈnɒlədʒɪ)
[f. immunity + -ology.]
The science which treats of the phenomena and causes of immunity (sense 5).
| 1910 Jrnl. Amer. Med. Assoc. 5 Mar. 828/1 Relations between pharmacology, immunology and experimental therapy. 1911 Ibid. 25 Feb. 578/2 The science of immunity, or immunology, would explain the mechanism by which the animal body is enabled to resist disease. 1947 Nature 4 Jan. 15/2 The hope that they [sc. incipient cancers] may elaborate specific antigenic substances, and thus provide serological tests, goes back to the first years of immunology. 1963 Gell & Coombs Clin. Aspects Immunol. p. xvii, Immunology has two aspects, its use as a tool and its investigation as a biological phenomenon. |
Hence immunoˈlogic (chiefly U.S.), -ˈlogical adjs., of or pertaining to immunity or immunology; immunoˈlogically adv., from the point of view of immunology; as regards the phenomena, properties, etc., of immunity; immuˈnologist, an expert in or student of immunology.
| 1912 Jrnl. Exper. Med. XVI. 635 Hemolysins, precipitins, or other bodies included in the province of the immunologist. 1914 Billings & Irons Forchheimer's Therapeusis Internal Dis. V. iii. 121 (heading) Immunological reactions in diagnosis. 1919 Immunologic [see allergy a.]. 1929 R. T. Hewlett in Syst. Bacteriol. (Med. Res. Council) III. 375 Dickson had previously observed that the Nevin cheese strain differed immunologically from other strains with which he was working. 1955 Sci. News Let. 12 Mar. 168/1 Because of his lack of gamma globulin, the Minnesota boy has what his doctors term almost complete ‘immunologic paralysis’, meaning the mechanism in his body that should help him develop immunity, or resistance, to disease has been paralyzed. 1960 New Biol. XXXI. 103 It seems..that any potentially antigenic material which comes into contact with the cells during the stage of immunological immaturity fails subsequently to cause antibody formation. 1963 Times 25 Jan. 7/7 In such a case the twins are immunologically tolerant of each other's tissues. 1967 W. O. Weigle Natural & Acquired Immunologic Unresponsiveness i. 1 The evidence available suggests that the acquisition of an immunologic unresponsive state to self is not genetically determined, but is acquired early in life before maturation of the immune mechanisms. 1968 Sunday Tel. 28 Jan. 4/4 Dr. M. C. Botha, the immunologist who conducted the tests. 1973 J. Goodfield Courier to Peking x. 120 You hear the voice of the true immunologist. Ibid. 126 The question was a highly technical one and understanding it demanded a thorough background in immunological theory. |