A medical instrument used to measure how sensitive someone is to pain or how much pain they can tolerate.
From Greek 'algesis' (pain sensation) combined with '-meter' (measuring instrument). This scientific term was coined in the 19th century as doctors developed new tools to objectively measure pain responses.
Doctors realized they couldn't just ask 'does it hurt?' because everyone's pain tolerance is wildly different—so they invented instruments to measure pain sensitivity on a scale, which helped them understand nerve damage and test new painkillers.
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