heterology
noun
Forms heterologies
- noun (biology) A lack of correspondence between biomolecules or body parts (e.g., proteins, tissues, bones, limbs) that reflects a difference in origin.
- noun (grammar) The property of a word or phrase that does not describe itself. “The words ultrashort and onomatopoeia display heterology: ultrashort might be called short but is not an ultrashort word, and onomatopoeia is not an onomatopoeic word.”
Antonyms
Etymology
From hetero- + -logy.
Webster’s 1913
- noun The absence of correspondence, or relation, in type of structure; lack of analogy between parts, owing to their being composed of different elements, or of like elements in different proportions; variation in structure from the normal form; --opposed to homology.
- noun The connection or relation of bodies which have partial identity of composition, but different characteristics and properties; the relation existing between derivatives of the same substance, or of the analogous members of different series; as, ethane, ethyl alcohol, acetic aldehyde, and acetic acid are in heterology with each other, though each in at the same time a member of a distinct homologous series. Cf. Homology.
Etymology [Hetero- + -logy.]
Sources: Wiktionary · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “heterology”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details