symmetric

Etymology

It is formed from English symmetry + -ic,^[2][3][4] after geometric;^[3] the OED compares symétrique, earlier symmetrique, from 1529.^[3] Symmetry is from symmetrie or symmetria, from Ancient Greek συμμετρία (summetría, “agreement in dimensions, due proportion”), from σύμμετρος (súmmetros, “having a common measure, proportionate”), from σύν (sún) and μέτρον (métron, “measure”).^[3][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Having its parts in due proportion: Etymonline dates the word to the 1660s,^[2] while the OED's first record, in the sense "symmetrical", is from 1796, in Charles Burney's memoirs of Metastasio.^[3]

Semantic evolution

English had several forms of the adjective: symmetrial from the 1610s, symmetral from the 1650s, "agreeing in measurement" or "agreeing with divine order", and symmetrical from 1751.^[2][3] Symmetrical became the usual form,^[4][3] and symmetric is now mostly its synonym, preferred in technical uses.^[5][3] In physics it has been used since 1935 in the sense of symmetrical,^[3] and in logic since 1933 of a relation that still holds when its two terms are swapped, as is a sibling of does.^[3][5] Mathematics also has the symmetric determinant.^[4]

Timeline

• 1660s – having parts in due proportion.^[2] The OED's first record, in the same sense as symmetrical, is from 1796.^[3]
• 1933 – logic, of a relation that holds both ways.^[3]
• 1935 – physics, symmetrical.^[3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Having symmetry; the same as symmetrical.^[5][3][4][6]
2. (logic, mathematics) Of a relation: holding between y and x whenever it holds between x and y.^[5][3]
3. (physics) Unchanged by a given transformation, symmetrical.^[3]

Word family

• antisymmetric
• asymmetric
• axisymmetric
• centrosymmetric
• monosymmetric
• skew-symmetric
• symmetric difference
• symmetric function

Related words

• symmetry
• symmetrical
• metre
• geometric

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
6. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster