Also 6 symmetrye, simetrie, 6–7 simetry, sym(m)etrie, 7 simmetry, -ie, symetry. [a. F. † symmetrie (1529), mod. symétrie (= It. simm-, Sp. sim-, Pg. symetria), or ad. late L. symmetria, a. Gr. συμμετρία, f. σύμμετρος, f. σύν SYM- + μέτρον measure (see METRE).]
† 1. Mutual relation of the parts of something in respect of magnitude and position; relative measurement and arrangement of parts; proportion.
With qualifying adj. such as just, right, true, coinciding with sense 2.
1563. Shute, Archit., A iij b. Concerning ye proportion and simetry to vse the accustomed terme of the arte of the for-named columbes. Ibid., B j b. They not knowing any measure of pillours considered howe to make a iust Symetrie,… after that they deuised to make a temple to the goddesse Diana, wherein they dyd deuise an other Symetrie, for that temple.
1570. Dee, Math. Pref., a iv. The exhibiting to our eye,… the plat of a Citie,… or Pallace, in true Symmetry. Ibid., c iij b. Now, may you, of any Gunne,… make an other, with the same Symmetrie … as great, and as little, as you will.
1624. Wotton, Archit., in Reliq. (1672), 23. Man … is … as it were the Prototype of all exact Symmetrie.
1650. Bulwer, Anthropomet., 241. True and native beauty consists in the just composure and symetrie of the parts of the body.
1730. A. Gordon, Maffei’s Amphith., 313. He marks out a Stair … which agrees not with the Symmetry of the Building.
2. Due or just proportion; harmony of parts with each other and the whole; fitting, regular, or balanced arrangement and relation of parts or elements; the condition or quality of being well-proportioned or well-balanced. In stricter use (approaching or passing into 3 b): Exact correspondence in size and position of opposite parts; equable distribution of parts about a dividing line or center. (As an attribute either of the whole, or of the parts composing it.)
a. of natural objects or structures, esp. the human or animal body: often (esp. in early use) = regularity and beauty of form, fair or fine appearance, comeliness.
1599. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Rev., I. iii. If I had thought a creature of her symmetry, could have dar’d so improportionable, and abrupt a digression.
1633. G. Herbert, Temple, Ch. Porch, lxx. Who marks in church-time others symmetrie, Makes all their beautie his deformitie.
1635. A. Stafford, Fem. Glory (1869), 5. Whether her Beauty chiefly consisted in colour, in symmetry of parts, or both.
1778. Han. More, Bleeding Rock, 224. Hers every charm of symmetry and grace.
1820. W. Irving, Sketch Bk., I. 185. The small Italian hound of exquisite symmetry.
1853. C. Brontë, Villette, xxiv. Her pale, small features, her fairy symmetry, her varying expression.
1858. O. W. Holmes, Aut. Breakf.-t., xii. 113. One of the finest trees in symmetry and beauty I had ever seen.
† (b) in semi-concr. sense: (Well-proportioned) figure or form (of a person or animal). Obs.
1602. Marston, Ant. & Mel., II. Wks. 1856, I. 25. Ladie, erect your gratious simmetry.
1633. Ford, Love’s Sacr., II. E j. She cannot … more really, behold her owne Symmetry in her glasse.
1794. W. Blake, Songs Exper., Tiger, 4. What immortal hand or eye Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
b. of artificial things or structures, esp. buildings.
1601. Holland, Pliny, XXXIV. viii. II. 499. The Symmetrie, which … he observed most precisely in all his workes, is a tearme that cannot properly be expressed by a Latine word. Ibid., XXXV. x. 543. Asclepiodorus, whome for his singular skill in observing symetries and just proportions, Apelles himselfe was woont to admire.
1702. W. J., trans. Bruyn’s Voy. Levant, ix. 31. There is no regularity of Architecture nor any Symmetry observ’d in it.
1723. Chambers, trans. Le Clerc’s Archit., I. 97. This Column … must have a Pilaster by its side, to make a Symmetry with that on the other side the Window.
1820. Lamb, Elia, Ser. I. Two Races of Men. Spoilers of the symmetry of shelves.
1849. Longf., Building Ship, 179. Till, framed with perfect symmetry, A skeleton ship rose up to view!
1907. Verney Mem., I. 15. The utter disregard of symmetry evinced by our ancestors which is one secret of the picturesqueness of their groups of buildings.
c. in general sense, or of immaterial or abstract things, as action, thought, discourse, literary composition, etc.
1603. Holland, Plutarch’s Mor., 60. Beautie and fauour is composed … of many numbers meeting and concurring in one … and that by a certaine symmetrie, consonance and harmonie.
1609. Bp. Andrewes, Serm., Resurrection, iv. (1631), 420. The way, to peace, is the mid way: neither … too much; nor … too little. In a word; all analogie, symmetrie, harmony, in the world, goeth by it.
1643. Sir T. Browne, Relig. Med., II. § 9. Whatsoever is harmonically composed, delights in harmony; which makes me much distrust the symmetry of those heads which declaime against all Church musicke.
1711. Shaftesb., Charac., IV. ii. (1737), I. 139. The ordering of Walks, Plantations, Avenues; and a thousand other Symmetrys, will succeed in the room of that happier and higher Symmetry and Order of a Mind.
1742. West, Lett., in Gray’s Poems (1775), 142. The connection and symmetry of such little parts with one another must naturally escape me, as not having the plan of the whole in my head.
1860. Pusey, Min. Proph., 291. This book, Micah, has remarkable symmetry. Each of its three divisions is a whole, beginning with upbraiding for sin, threatening Gods judgments, and ending with promises of future mercy.
a. 1862. Buckle, Civiliz. (1864), II. vi. 445. Into that dense and disorderly mass, did Adam Smith introduce symmetry, method, and law.
1904. Hugh Black, Practice of Self-Culture, v. 132. Culture … aims at symmetry of life.
(b) Agreement, consistency, consonance, congruity, keeping (with something), rare or Obs.
1654. H. L’Estrange, Chas. I. (1655), 9. You furnished my Father with … supply’s, but they held no symmetry or proportion with the charge of so great an enterprise.
1659. Evelyn, Lett. to R. Boyle, 3 Sept. I will … shew what symmetry it [sc. the building] holds with this description.
1878. Stubbs, Lect. Med. & Mod. Hist., viii. (1900), 192. It is in exact symmetry with Western usage, that this great compilation was not received as a code until the year 1369.
3. Various specific and technical uses.
† a. Physiol. Harmonious working of the bodily functions, producing a healthy temperament or condition. Obs. rare.
1541. Copland, Galyen’s Terap., 2 E j b. In Symmetrye, that is to say … in competent [? competence] and commoderacyon of smal conduites lyeth and consisteth the helth. And in Ametrie, that is to saye, in vncompetence and immoderacyon in them the dysease.
b. Geom., etc. Exact correspondence in position of the several points or parts of a figure or body with reference to a dividing line, plane, or point (or a number of lines or planes); arrangement of all the points of a figure or system in pairs (or sets) so that those of each pair (or set) are at equal distances on opposite sides of such line, plane, or point.
Symmetry, e.g., in crystals, may be of various grades, according to the number of radiating or non-parallel lines or planes about which the figure or body is symmetrical.
Axis of symmetry, center of s., plane of s., the line, point, or plane about which a figure or body is symmetrical, i.e., which bisects every straight line joining a pair of corresponding points of such figure or body.
1823. H. J. Brooke, Introd. Crystallogr., 13. From the perfect symmetry of its form, the cube has a similar axis in four directions.
1837. Brewster, Magnet., 39. A horse-shoe magnet … was made to revolve … about its axis of symmetry.
1850. McCosh, Div. Govt., II. i. (1874), 119. The oblong, or two-and-two-membered symmetry, may be traced … among crystals and flowers, as may also the three-membered symmetry.
1877. Huxley, Physiogr. (1878), 56. The best example of this hexagonal symmetry … is furnished by crystals of snow.
1878. Gurney, Crystallogr., 29. A plane … through the centre of a model of a crystal will be a plane of symmetry, if the perpendiculars drawn to it from every point of the model, on being produced to equal distances on the other side … will terminate in points of the model similar to those from which they are drawn.
(b) Alg. and Higher Math. The fact of being symmetrical, as an expression or function: see SYMMETRICAL 2 b.
1888. Amer. Jrnl. Math., X. 173. Notes on Geometric Inferences from Algebraic Symmetry.
c. Anat. and Zool. Arrangement of parts or organs in pairs or sets on opposite sides of a dividing plane, or around an axis or center; repetition of similar corresponding parts in the two halves, or other number of divisions, of the body. (Nearly coinciding with 3 b or the stricter use in 2, except that corresponding parts are not necessarily equal, nor do all the parts necessarily correspond.) (b) Path. Affection of such corresponding parts simultaneously by the same disease.
1849–52. Todd’s Cycl. Anat., IV. 845. Symmetry is a word used to express … the fact, that one half of an animal is usually an exact reversed copy of the other…. To this there are numerous exceptions.
a. 1883. Fagge, Princ. Pract. Med. (1886), II. 619. Symmetrical distribution means that exactly the corresponding parts on the right and left side are simultaneously affected. This is bilateral symmetry, but we also see examples of serial symmetry in pathology where the same condition is seen on the elbow and the knee, the wrist and the ankle.
d. Bot. Equality of the number of parts in the several whorls of the flower: see SYMMETRICAL 3 a.
1845–50. Mrs. Lincoln, Lect. Bot., 138. The symmetry of structure observable in [Enchanter’s Night-shade] is seen in many flowers.
1849. Balfour, Man. Bot., § 643. When the number of parts is two, the flower is dimerous … and the symmetry two-membered. When the number of parts is three, the flower is trimerous, and when the parts are arranged in an alternating manner, the symmetry is trigonal or triangular [etc.].
1908. Henslow, How to Study Wild Fl., 113. The flowers [of Lythrum Salicaria] vary in symmetry; for sometimes the central flower will differ from the lateral ones in the number of parts.
