Dictionary

dissymmetry en · NOUN

Etymology

Etymology tree Latin dis- Old French des-bor. Latin dis-bor. Middle English dis- English dis- English symmetry English dissymmetry From dis- + symmetry.

Meanings

1. (countable, uncountable) asymmetry
   • The dissymetry between the criminal act and the torturous punishment reflected the gross imbalance of power between the subject and the sovereign. 2001, Bernard E. Harcourt, chapter 5, in Illusion of Order:
   • In each feature of this sovereign friendship (exception, improbable and random unicity, metapolitical transcendence, disproportion, infinite dissymmetry, denaturalization, etc.), it might be tempting to recognize a rupture with Greek philía – a testamentary rupture, as some would hasten to conclude, a palaeo- or neo-testamentary rupture. 1997, “He Who Accompanies Me”, in George Collins, transl., The Politics of Friendship, London; New York, N.Y.: Verso, translation of Politiques de l’amitié by Jacques Derrida, published 2005, →ISBN, page 185:
2. (countable, obsolete, uncountable) chirality

Forms