symmetry

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈsɪm.ɪ.tɹi/^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French symmétrie,^[2][3][4] or directly borrowed from Latin symmetria,^{[5][2][3][6][4]} from Ancient Greek συμμετρία (summetría, “agreement in dimensions, due proportion”),^{[5][2][3][6][4]} from σύμμετρος (súmmetros) “having a common measure, proportionate”,^[5][2][3][4] from Ancient Greek σύν (sún, “together”) + μέτρον (métron, “measure”).^{[5][2][3][6][4]}

Earliest recorded meaning

The mutual relation of the parts of something in size and position; proportion (1563), a sense now obsolete.^[7][2][6][3]

Semantic evolution

By 1599 the word meant a due or harmonious arrangement of parts, especially the proper proportion of the human body according to a canon, and hence beauty of form.^[7][2][3] It was soon applied to buildings and artificial things (1601) and to abstract things such as thought and literary composition (1603).^[7] The scientific sense, exact correspondence of parts on either side of a dividing line or plane or about a centre or axis, developed in the early 19th century, by 1823 in botany.^[3][5][6] Symmetrical dates from 1751.^[2] In poetry, as in Blake's “fearful symmetry”, the word was sometimes made to rhyme with eye.^[1]

Timeline

• 1563 – proportion, relation of parts.^[7][2][6]
• 1599 – harmonious proportion, beauty of form.^[7][2]
• 1751 – symmetrical.^[2]
• 1823 – correspondence about a median plane (botany).^[3]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. Exact correspondence of form and arrangement of parts on opposite sides of a dividing line or plane, or about a centre or axis.
2. Balanced or due proportion, or the beauty arising from it; harmony.
3. A relationship of correspondence or equivalence among the parts of a whole or between different things.
4. (mathematics) A regularity of a mathematical object that is preserved under some transformation.

Word family

• antisymmetry
• dissymmetry
• pseudosymmetry
• supersymmetry
• symmetrical
• symmetrize
• axis of symmetry
• bilateral symmetry

Related words

• asymmetric
• asymmetry
• meter
• measure
• geometry

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas, Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
6. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c d e Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press