nocebo
English edit
Etymology edit
Borrowed from Latin nocēbō (“I will harm”), the first-person singular future active indicative form of noceō (“I harm”), by analogy with placebo. The word was coined by Walter P. Kennedy in a 1961 article entitled “The Nocebo Reaction” (see quotation).
Pronunciation edit
- (Received Pronunciation) enPR: nōsē′bō, IPA(key): /nəʊˈsiː.bəʊ/
Audio (Southern England) (file)
- (General American) enPR: nōsē′bō, IPA(key): /noʊˈsi.boʊ/
- Rhymes: -iːbəʊ
- Hyphenation: no‧ce‧bo
Noun edit
nocebo (plural nocebos)
- (pharmacology, also attributive) A substance which a patient experiences as harmful due to a previous negative perception, but which is in fact pharmacologically (medicinally) inactive. [from 1961]
- 1961 September, Walter P. Kennedy, “The Nocebo Reaction”, in Medical World, volume 95, London: Medical Practitioners' Union, →ISSN, →OCLC, →PMID, page 203:
- It is somewhat surprising that little attention has been drawn to the existence of the contrary effect [to the placebo] – which I may call the nocebo reaction.
- 2009 April 25, Stuart Blackman, “Why health warnings can be bad”, in Financial Times:
- In the case of the nocebo, it is negative expectations that become self-fulfilling prophecies.
- 2014 May 15, Jennifer Welsh, “Researchers who Provided Key Evidence for Gluten Sensitivity have now Thoroughly Shown that It Doesn’t Exist”, in Business Insider[1], archived from the original on 2 July 2017:
- It seems to be a "nocebo" effect – the self-diagnosed gluten sensitive patients expected to feel worse on the study diets, so they did.
- 2020, Rutger Bregman, Humankind[2], Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN:
- If there's one lesson to be drawn from the nocebo effect, it's that ideas are never merely ideas. […] Maybe you see where I'm going with this: our grim view of humanity is also a nocebo.
Derived terms edit
Translations edit
pharmacologically inactive substance experienced as harmful
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See also edit
Further reading edit
Latin edit
Pronunciation edit
- (Classical) IPA(key): /noˈkeː.boː/, [nɔˈkeːboː]
- (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): /noˈt͡ʃe.bo/, [noˈt͡ʃɛːbo]
Verb edit
nocēbō
Descendants edit
- English: nocebo