Idiosyncrasy
An idiosyncrasy is an unusual feature of a person (though there are also other uses, see below). It can also mean an odd habit. The term is often used to express eccentricity or peculiarity.[1][2] A synonym may be "quirk".
Linguistics
The term can also be applied to symbols or words. Idiosyncratic symbols mean one thing for a particular person, as a blade could mean war, but to someone else, it could symbolize a surgery.
Idiosyncrasy in religion
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Among religious people, idiosyncrasy means behavior that is different from the usual, different from that which is generally seen as common, yet also as different social behavior that can be seen in the varieties of cults.
Health Bonus
Idiosyncrasy defined the way physicians conceived diseases in the 19th century. They considered each disease as a unique condition, related to each patient. This understanding began to change in the 1870s, when discoveries made by researchers in Europe permitted the advent of a "scientific medicine", a precursor to the evidence-based medicine that is the standard of practice today. [citation needed]
Pharmacology
The term idiosyncratic drug reaction denotes an aberrant or bizarre reaction or hypersensitivity to a substance, without connection to the pharmacology of the drug. It is what is known as a Type B reaction. Type B reactions have the following characteristics: they are usually unpredictable, might not be picked up by toxicological screening, not necessarily dose-related, incidence and morbidity low but mortality is high. Type B reactions are most commonly immunological (e.g. penicillin allergy).[3]
Economics
In portfolio theory, risks of price changes due to the unique circumstances of a specific security, as opposed to the overall market, are called "idiosyncratic risks". This specific risk, also called unsystematic, can be nulled out of a portfolio through diversification. Pooling multiple securities means the specific risks cancel out. In complete markets, there is no compensation for idiosyncratic risk—that is, a security's idiosyncratic risk does not matter for its price. For instance, in a complete market in which the capital asset pricing model holds, the price of a security is determined by the amount of systematic risk in its returns. Net income received, or losses suffered, by a landlord from renting of one or two properties is subject to idiosyncratic risk due to the numerous things that can happen to real property and variable behavior of tenants.[4]
In econometrics, "idiosyncratic error" is used to describe error—that is, unobserved factors that impact the dependent variable—from panel data that both changes over time and across units (individuals, firms, cities, towns, etc.).
- ^ Rundell, Michael (2002). Macmillan English Dictionary. Hannover: Schroedel Diesterweg.
- ^ "Idiosyncrasy". Cambridge Dictionaries Online. Archived from the original on October 28, 2011. Retrieved October 26, 2011.
- ^ Uetrecht, Jack (2008-01-01). "Idiosyncratic Drug Reactions: Past, Present, and Future". Chemical Research in Toxicology. 21 (1): 84–92. doi:10.1021/tx700186p. ISSN 0893-228X. PMID 18052104.
- ^ Tara Siegel Barnard (March 29, 2013). "Rental Investment May Seem Safer Than It Really Is". The New York Times. Archived from the original on March 30, 2013. Retrieved March 30, 2013.