hypersensitivity

noun — 2 senses

hypersensitivity

noun

Etymology From hyper- + sensitivity.

1

Any heightened immune response to an antigen; an allergy; hypersensation.

2

The state of being easily offended or hurt.

  • "I might say," remarked Professor Richet, "that the hyper-sensibility is moral as well as physical. Panbek is impressionable and full of emotion, with the temperament of the poet and all those little weaknesses, if we may call them so, which the poet pays as a ransom for his gifts."1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “(please specify the chapter number)”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019:
  • If our universities are teaching students that their emotions can be used effectively as weapons—or at least as evidence in administrative proceedings—then they are teaching students to nurture a kind of hypersensitivity that will lead them into countless drawn-out conflicts in college and beyond.2015, The Atlantic, G. Lukianoff, J. Haidt, The Coddling of the American Mind:
Derived terms
antihypersensitivity, electrohypersensitivity, electromagnetic hypersensitivity, human seminal plasma protein hypersensitivity, hypersensitivity pneumonitis, pseudohypersensitivity, sensory hypersensitivity, type 1 hypersensitivity
Related terms
hypersensitive

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.