heterological

Adjective

heterological (not comparable)

1. Of a word, not describing itself.
   • The words ultrashort and onomatopoeia are heterological: ultrashort might be called short but is not an ultrashort word, and onomatopoeia is not an onomatopoeic word.
   • A paradox arises when we ask, "Is the word 'heterological' heterological." If it is, it is not. If it is not, it is.1993, Noel Balzer -, The Human Being as a Logical Thinker, →ISBN, page 70

   Antonyms:

   autological

2. Not true of itself.
   • A further instance of the uncertainty of Prof. Bergmann's views on the subject of negation, is the distinction (considered by him as at least supposable) between " nicht-richtig " and "unrichtig" (§21,5.). This is done, of course, in order to put a " heterological " meaning into his Axiom of...1880, Mind - Volume 5, page 144
   • It is the dream of a purely heterological thought at its source. A pure thought of pure difference.1994, Christopher Norris, Truth and the Ethics of Criticism, →ISBN, page 50

   Antonyms:

   autological

3. (tissues, or body parts) Not of shared ancestral origin.
   • The normally situated non-transplanted gonads have the best chance of being able to absorb these substances, for which reason heterological (perhaps also homological) gonads, transplanted on normal organisms, can not get enough of these substances and therefore perish.1920, Science - Volume 52, page 181
   • Growth indices from density and extension of the zones of emigration in explants of rat bone-marrow on addition of various heterological tissue as against the controls.1983, Franz Schmid, Cell Therapy: A New Dimension of Medicine, page 106

   Synonyms:

   heterologous

   Antonyms:

   homologous, homological

4. Supporting or attracted to otherness.
   • That is why it could only have a multitude of names, could only be expressed by the lexical extravagance to which it inevitably leads heterological practice and, as such, does not escape the substitutive discourse. Eroticism is just one of the names of heterological impulse at work — Incomplete...1992, Denis Hollier, Against Architecture: The Writings of Georges Bataille, →ISBN, page 74
   • Bataille's writings in mythical anthropology from the late 1920s already associated the name Sade with a heterological interpretation of erotic expenditure.2007, Stuart Kendall, Georges Bataille, →ISBN
5. Having or supporting multiple interpretations.
   • Indeed, Godzich has situated de Certeau in a heterological tradition, a scholarly tradition in opposition to the hegemonical tradition which has dominated western intellectual thinking. Scholars in the heterological tradition relativise scholarship and point to the constraints enforced by the...2003, Johannes Siapkas, Heterological Ethnicity: Conceptualizing Identities in Ancient Greece
   • Postcolonial theory provides yet another binarity: (ethnic) majority/minority, or imperialistic/ indigenous, yet another aspect of power hierarchy. Therefore I choose in discussions of gender to speak of heterological rather than feminist or queer analysis.2009, Maria Nikolajeva, Power, Voice and Subjectivity in Literature for Young Readers, →ISBN