horror autotoxicus en · NOUN
Etymology
Latinate neologism coined c. 1900 by Paul Ehrlich in German, from Latin horror, auto- (“self”), toxicus (“toxic”). Compare horror vacui.
Meanings
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(historical, uncountable) The now-discredited principle that the body will not harm itself by its own immune reactions.
Ehrlich's dictum of horror autotoxicus makes no claim that autoantibodies may not be formed; it only suggests that they are somehow prevented from acting.
1989, Arthur M. Silverstein, A History of Immunology, →ISBN, page 163: