disproportion

English

Etymology

dis- +‎ proportion

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /dɪspɹəˈpɔːʃən/

• Audio (RP)

  (file)

Noun

disproportion (countable and uncountable, plural disproportions)

1. The state of being out of proportion; an abnormal or improper ratio; an imbalance.
   • 1938, Xavier Herbert, chapter XIII, in Capricornia‎^[1], New York: D. Appleton-Century, published 1943, page 208:

     […] a handsome creature, remarkably so, with features so symmetrical […] that a micrometer gauge could scarcely find a disproportion in her smooth and broad mahogany-coloured face.

   • 1978 December 9, Nancy Walker, “Sexism and Racism at GCN?”, in Gay Community News, volume 6, number 20, page 10:

     Then we, the social outsiders, turn around and dictate how men shall treat women (seldom, if ever, how women shall treat men; power in men's rather than women's hands being the excuse offered for this lop-sided arrangement), and how whites shall treat blacks (the same disproportion exists here too).

   the disproportion of the length of a building to its height

2. Lack of suitableness, adequacy, or due proportion to an end or use; unsuitableness.

   the disproportion of strength or means to an object

Derived terms

• cephalopelvic disproportion

Translations

the state of being out of proportion

• Bulgarian: несъразмерност (bg) f (nesǎrazmernost)
• Catalan: desproporció (ca) f
• Esperanto: misproporcio
• Polish: dysproporcja (pl) f
• Spanish: desproporción (es) f

Verb

disproportion (third-person singular simple present disproportions, present participle disproportioning, simple past and past participle disproportioned)

1. (transitive) To make unsuitable in quantity, form, or fitness; to violate symmetry in; to mismatch.
   • c. 1591–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]:

     To shape my legs of an unequal size; / To disproportion me in every part.

   • 1838, William H[ickling] Prescott, History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, the Catholic. […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), Boston, Mass.: American Stationers’ Company; John B. Russell, →OCLC:

     a degree of strength altogether disproportioned to the extent of its territory

French

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

disproportion f (plural disproportions)

1. disproportion

Further reading

• “disproportion”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.