Medications that block histamine, a chemical in the body that causes allergic reactions, sneezing, itching, and inflammation.
From anti- (against) + histamine + -s (plural). 'Histamine' comes from 'histo-' (tissue, from Greek 'histos') and 'amine' (an organic compound). These drugs were developed in the 1930s-40s.
When you take an allergy pill, you're basically telling your immune cells to stop releasing histamine—it's wild that a single chemical in your body is responsible for so many annoying allergy symptoms!
Complete word intelligence in one call. Free tier — 50 lookups/day.