immune
pronunciation
How to pronounce immune in British English:
UK [ɪˈmjuːn]
How to pronounce immune in American English:
US [ɪˈmjuːn]
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- Noun:
- a person who is immune to a particular infection
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- Adjective:
- relating to the condition of immunity
- secure against
- relating to or conferring immunity (to disease or infection)
- (usually followed by `to') not affected by a given influence
Word Origin
- immune
- immune: [15] The -mune of immune is the same as that of remunerate and of commune (and hence of common). It represents Latin mūnis ‘ready to give service’. The addition of the negative prefix in- gave immūnis, which in classical Latin denoted literally ‘exempt from a service, charge, etc’, and hence by metaphorical extension ‘free from something, devoid of something’. This general sense still survives, of course, in English (as in ‘grant immunity from prosecution’); and the more specific ‘not liable to infection’ did not emerge until as recently as the 1870s, probably under the influence of French or German.=> common, commune, remunerate
- immune (adj.)
- mid-15c., "free; exempt," back-formation from immunity. Latin immunis meant "exempt from public service, free from taxes." Specific modern medical sense of "exempt from a disease" (typically because of inoculation) is from 1881. Immune system attested by 1917.
Example
- 1. You can have genes related to the immune system .
- 2. Your immune system is affected .
- 3. Laugh to strengthen your immune system .
- 4. Vitamin c helps boost the immune system .
- 5. Mhc genes affect important immune responses .