stressor

From stress +‎ -or.

stressor (plural stressors)

1. (psychology, biology) An environmental condition or influence that stresses (i.e. causes stress for) an organism.
   • 1997, Edward M. Hallowell, When You Worry About the Child You Love (page 162)

     These children are constitutionally sad. Other children, like Luke, develop depressive feelings out of the blue or in response to some mild stressor.

   • 2011, Steven Pinker, The Better Angels of Our Nature, Penguin 2012, p. 670:

     These paradoxical pleasures […] are acquired by controlling one's exposure to the stressor in gradually increasing doses.

• technostressor

• trossers