English

Etymology

Adjective

1. Not harmonic.
2. (Australianist linguistics) Of or related to a generation an odd number of generations distant from a particular person.
   • 1979, Barry J. Blake & R. M. W. Dixon, The Handbook of Australian Languages

     A person is 'harmonic' with respect to his own generation and all even-numbered generations counting away from his own, and disharmonic with respect to odd-numbered generations. Thus a man is disharmonic with respect to his father and his son but harmonic with respect to his grandfather and his grandson.

   • 1995, Alan Dench, Martuthunira: A Language of the Pilbara Region of Western Australia

     ... there is also a special set of (non-singular first person) pronoun forms for use with disharmonic kin: those in the opposite generation set. ... The two disharmonic pronouns are used as polite forms when the addressee and speaker are in different alternate generation sets.