Books Blog: English Literature & Linguistics

I looked up “idiosyncratic” in The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000 and received the following definition:

idiosyncrasy

SYLLABICATION: id·i·o·syn·cra·sy
1. A structural or behavioral characteristic peculiar to an individual or group.
2. A physiological or temperamental peculiarity.
3. An unusual individual reaction to food or a drug.

ETYMOLOGY: Greek idiosunkrsi : idio-, idio- + sunkrsis, mixture, temperament

I never knew that an idiosyncrasy was also a type of allergy. Looking up “idiosyncrasy” in the OED, it appears that the word originally referred to physical temperment, and not mental peculiarity.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 16th, 2005 at 3:47 am and is tagged with american heritage dictionary, american heritage dictionary of the english language, dictionary of the english language, peculiarity, syllabication, temperment, oed, temperament, allergy, mixture, idiosyncrasy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback.

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