Actually sort of a scientific poll, hence not on a Friday

[nanila]

Poll #15529 Allergies v. Hay Fever

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: Just the Poll Creator, participants: 42

I call the sneezing/runny nose/watery eyes associated with springtime pollen/spores

Hay fever
32 (76.2%)

Allergies
10 (23.8%)

My geographical location is (please be as precise as you're comfortable with; only I can see the results)

Comments

[lark_ascends]

Both? Australia. I've both heard and probably used both options.

[rmc28]

I say 'hay fever' because I take drugs marketed for treating hay fever and they make it better.

[caulkhead]

I call it hayfever even when I get it outside pollen season and I know it's caused by eg dust.

[weaverbird]

I grew up calling it hay fever, but sometime in the fairly recent past switched to allergies. Have lived in the same area all my life, so it's not that I moved into an "allergy" region.

[sunflowerinrain]

Depends who I'm speaking to, but in my head it's allergy or even allergic rhinitis. I don't get it from grasses - they cause a rash instead.
When you ask for current geographical location, do you want to know which continent? If you want to narrow it to dialects, current location may not help. Mine certainly won't!

[nanila]

I don't really have enough results from Australia to observe a pattern, but I can say for certain that the UK is mostly "hay fever" while the US favours "allergies".

[nanila]

Yes, me too!

[nanila]

I think it's the common UK term for the sneezies (as I call them :P).

[nanila]

Interesting! I'm wondering if this is west-coast-terminology (particularly California) weaseling its way into everywhere. I don't really have enough US data from the poll to confirm, but so far it seems like there is more term-switching on the east coast, while west coast is pretty firmly "allergies".

[nanila]

Lots of people have been answering "Current location is X, but grew up in Y", which has been very useful!

[weaverbird]

In my case, I think it was simply that allergies is more precise than hay fever. Growing up a very literal-minded child on a farm, where I was around hay every day, the term hay fever always bugged me. "You don't get a fever from hay!" Then, when the term allergies drifted into my ken (quite possibly, as you say, from the West Coast) I adopted it.

[lovepeaceohana]

I call it "allergies" because "hay fever," while the term we used where I grew up in the Midwest, seemed ridiculously not-specific to me. Although if I'm being more honest I don't even say "allergies," I say "sinuses," as in "my sinuses are being ridiculous right now."

[nanila]

I still say "allergies" (Hawai'i/West Coast upbringing) despite 10 years in the UK. I can see my British friends biting their tongues on correcting me to "hay fever". But it's one of the few things I hang on to because I like the American version better. That, and saying "Zee" instead of "Zed" at the end of the Alphabet Song, because dammit, it ACTUALLY RHYMES. :P

[sunflowerinrain]

Gosh, what simple lives some people have had! ;)

[sunflowerinrain]

Oh, and what I usually say out loud is "j'suis allergique".