hypersensitivity

English

Etymology

hyper- +‎ sensitivity

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Noun

hypersensitivity (countable and uncountable, plural hypersensitivities)

  1. Any heightened immune response to an antigen; an allergy; hypersensation.
  2. The state of being easily offended or hurt.
    • 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:
      "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."
    • 2015, The Atlantic, G. Lukianoff, J. Haidt, The Coddling of the American Mind‎:
      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.

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