immunologyn.
/ˌɪmjᵿˈnɒlədʒi/, U.S. /ˌɪmjəˈnɑlədʒi/ The study of the phenomena of immunity (see immunity n. 5); the branch of science concerned with the structure and function of the immune system.
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the world > life > biology > study > [noun] > immunology
immunology1906
immunobiology1942
1906 Jrnl. Amer. Med. Assoc. 12 May 1409/1 In accordance with the current usage in the case of agglutinins and other terms employed in immunology we may speak of opsonins for bacteria and for red corpuscles as bacteriopsonins and hemopsonins, respectively.
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 Pix 9 Mar. 20/1 Immunology deals not only with the defence mechanisms against foreign agents in the blood, but also with the inherited mechanisms for this defence.
2002 R. Porter Blood & Guts iv. 89 The microbe hunters..made great strides towards solving the thorny problem of disease aetiology, though in the process throwing up the perplexing questions of susceptibility and resistance, which proved the matrix for the later science of immunology.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2008; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1906