Editing Antigen (section)

==Etymology==
[[Paul Ehrlich]] coined the term ''[[Antibody#History|antibody]]'' ({{langx|de|Antikörper}}) in his [[side-chain theory]] at the end of the 19th century.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Strebhardt K, Ullrich A | title = Paul Ehrlich's magic bullet concept: 100 years of progress | journal = Nature Reviews. Cancer | volume = 8 | issue = 6 | pages = 473–480 | date = June 2008 | pmid = 18469827 | doi = 10.1038/nrc2394 | s2cid = 30063909 }}</ref> In 1899, [[László Detre (microbiologist)|Ladislas Deutsch (László Detre)]] named the hypothetical substances halfway between bacterial constituents and antibodies "antigenic or immunogenic substances" ({{langx|fr|substances immunogènes ou antigènes}}). He originally believed those substances to be [[Protein precursor|precursors]] of antibodies, just as a [[zymogen]] is a precursor of an [[enzyme]]. But, by 1903, he understood that an antigen induces the production of immune bodies (antibodies) and wrote that the word ''antigen'' is a [[Contraction (grammar)|contraction]] of antisomatogen  ({{lang|de|Immunkörperbildner}}). The ''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'' indicates that the logical construction should be "anti(body)-gen".<ref name="Lindenmann">{{cite journal | vauthors = Lindenmann J | title = Origin of the terms 'antibody' and 'antigen' | journal = Scandinavian Journal of Immunology | volume = 19 | issue = 4 | pages = 281–285 | date = April 1984 | pmid = 6374880 | doi = 10.1111/j.1365-3083.1984.tb00931.x | s2cid = 222200504 }}</ref>
The term originally referred to a substance that acts as an antibody generator.<ref>{{Cite book | vauthors = Male DK, Roitt IM, Brostoff J |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gE6o5ZRJUawC&q=antibody+generator&pg=PA10 |title=Immunology |date=2006 |publisher=Elsevier Health Sciences |isbn=978-0323033992 |page=10}}</ref>