French not initially accepting quantity of work, having a bad reaction (8)
I believe the answer is:
allergic
'work having a bad reaction' is the definition.
I can't judge whether this definition defines the answer.
'french not initially accepting quantity' is the wordplay.
'french' becomes 'Gallic' (I've seen this in another clue).
'not initially' means to remove the first letter.
'accepting' indicates putting letters inside (inserted letters are accepted).
'quantity' becomes 'erg' (erg is a kind of quantity).
'gallic' with its initial letter taken away is 'allic'.
'allic' placed around 'erg' is 'ALLERGIC'.
'of' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for allergic that I've seen before include "Responding badly (to something)" , "Having damaging immune response (to substance)" , "Having unfavourable reaction to, say pollen" , "Having unfavourable reaction to foods or plants" , "Medically sensitive to" .)