Also symmetriphobia. [irreg. f. SYMMETRY + -(o)PHOBIA.] Dread or avoidance of symmetry, as shown or supposed to be shown in Egyptian temples, Japanese art, etc.
1809. W. R. Hamilton, Remarks Turkey, I. 131. Another instance of the Symmetrophobia of the architects of antient Egypt is visible in the difference of the spaces between the sphinxes and crio-sphinxes.
1865. J. Fergusson, Hist. Archit., I. iv. I. 103. The buildings … are … generally affected with a symmetriphobia that it is difficult to understand.
1881. R. S. Poole, in Contemp. Rev., Sept., 373. Symmetrophobia, shown in the placing columns of different orders opposite one another, and a colonnade on one side only of a court.
1894. Lockyer, Dawn Astron., viii. 75. At Karnak, where both temples and temenos walls remain, we can see how closely the walls reflect the orientation of the included temples, even when they seem most liable to the suggestion of symmetrophobia.
