immune
Definitions
Protected against a particular disease because of the presence of antibodies
有免疫力的
Not affected or influenced by something
不受影响的
Exempt from an obligation, penalty, or duty
被豁免的，免除的
Root Breakdown
Root-derivedim- (in-, 'not, free from') + mūnis ('duty') = immūnis, 'free from duty.' A Roman immūnis owed no taxes or public service. Medicine borrowed the image: an immune body is one a disease can no longer 'tax' — it's been exempted. The same exemption sense survives in 'immune to criticism' and 'diplomatic immunity.'
Root mun still carries 15 more wordsWhy It Means This
The surprise in immune is that it began as a tax-and-duty word, not a medical one. Latin immūnis meant 'released from public obligations.' When 19th-century medicine needed a word for a body that disease couldn't touch, it reached for this old idea of exemption: the germ tries to 'collect' from you and can't. That's why the same word works for bodies (immune to flu), feelings (immune to flattery), and law (immune from prosecution) — in every case, something that should affect you simply has no claim on you.
Usage Guide
- immune TO a disease / influence — the most common pattern (immune to measles, immune to peer pressure)
- immune FROM a penalty / prosecution — legal exemption (immune from arrest)
- as a noun modifier: the immune system, immune response
Rough split: TO for what can't affect you; FROM for what you're legally exempted from.
Example Sentences
- 1.
Once you've had the disease, you're usually immune to it for life.
- 2.
No company is immune to economic downturns.
- 3.
Diplomats are immune from prosecution in the host country.
Easily Confused
immune vs resistant — resistant means 'able to fight off, hard to affect' but still affected to some degree (resistant to antibiotics); immune means 'completely unaffected, exempt.' A bacterium resistant to a drug still struggles against it; a person immune to a virus isn't touched at all.