dissimilar, a. (n.)
(dɪˈsɪmɪlə(r))
Also 7–8 dissimular.
[f. dis- 10 + similar: cf. F. dissimilaire (Paré, 16th c.), L. dissimilis unlike.]
Not similar or alike; different in appearance, properties, or nature; unlike. Const. to (less often from, rarely with.)
dissimilar whole (Logic), a whole composed of heterogeneous parts. dissimilar parts (in old Anat.), organs of the body composed of various ‘similar parts’ or tissues. Opposed to consimilar.
| 1621 Burton Anat. Mel. i. i. ii. iv, Dissimular parts are those which wee call Organicall. 1632 Sherwood, The dissimilar parts of the body, les parties dissimilaires du corps [not in Cotgr. 1611]. 1656 Stanley Hist. Philos. v. (1701) 166 Heterogeneous, consist of dissimular parts. 1705 Cheyne Philos. Princ. Relig. i. xxiv. (1715) 47 As well may the Ray be supposed to be dissimilar to the body of the Sun. 1779–81 Johnson L.P., Addison Wks. III. 87 A poetical simile is the discovery of likeness between two actions, in their general nature dissimilar. 1802 E. Parsons Myst. Visit ii. 154 A wish of her own dissimilar with any expressed wish of his. 1819 W. Taylor in Monthly Rev. LXXXIX. 78 Short lucubrations, not dissimilar from those of the Spectator. 1848 C. Brontë J. Eyre xii, A new picture..it was dissimilar to all the others hanging there. 1876 Humphreys Coin-Coll. Man. vi. 69 An entirely new style of coinage..which..was..dissimilar from the Roman. |
† b. Bot. Applied to the cotyledonary or seed-leaves of a plant, as being unlike in form to the later-developed ordinary leaves. Obs.
| 1671 Grew Anat. Plants i. i. §42 These Dissimilar Leaves, for the most part Two, which first spring up, and are of a different shape from those that follow, being the very Lobes of the Seed. 1721 Bailey, Dissimilar leaves (with Botanists) are the two first leaves of a Plant. |
B. as n. (in pl.) Dissimilar things.
| 1654 Z. Coke Logick (1657) 202 Dissimilars are wont chiefly to deserve explication. 1727–51 [see dissimile]. 1869 Goulburn Purs. Holiness viii. 67 If the dissimilars be not related to one another. |
Hence † dissimilarness = next.
| 1727 Bailey vol. II, Dissimilarness, unlikeness. |