Hay fever also know as allergic rhinitis or can hay fever be other things?

Maybe if you are not: Specific. Hay fever started off as a term describing how people felt when they developed sneezing, runny nose, nasal congestion to ragweed pollen during aug-sep when hay was harvested. They complained of feeling achy as if they had a fever. They thought they had an infection. Now some will call all outdoor allergic rhinitis as hay fever. Except in texas, in dec, it is called cedar fever.

Hay fever is it: Hay fever is a form of seasonal allergic rhinitis caused by allergy to ragweed. Ragweed pollenates during late august to early september, the traditional time for mowing hay. 19th century physicians thought that this malady of the nose & eyes might be due in some fashion to particles released by freshly mowed hay. "fever" is a 19th century term for inflammation & doesn't mean temperature elevation.