disimprovement

English

WOTD – 10 June 2019

Etymology

From dis- +‎ improvement.^[1]

Pronunciation

(Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /dɪsɪmˈpɹuːvm(ə)nt/
(General American) IPA^(key): /dɪsɪmˈpɹuvmənt/
Audio (General Australian): (file)
Hyphenation: dis‧im‧prove‧ment

Noun

disimprovement (countable and uncountable, plural disimprovements)

Reduction from a better to a worse state.
Synonyms: decline, deterioration, worsening

Antonyms: amelioration, betterment, improvement
- 1687, John Norris, “The Christian Law Asserted and Vindicated, or A General Apology for the Christian Religion, both as to the Obligativeness and Reasonableness of the Institution”, in A Collection of Miscellanies: Consisting of Poems, Essays, Discourses, and Letters Occasionally Written, Oxford: Printed […] for J. Crosley, bookseller, →OCLC; 3rd corrected edition, London: Printed for S[amuel] Manship, and are to be sold by Percivall Gilbourne, […], 1699, →OCLC, page 193:
  [...] '[T]is very reaſonable, that all ſhould be obliged to the Law of Justice. [...] And as to the Public, 'twould be all one as if there were no Property; and then for want of Encouragement and Security, the final iſſue of the matter would be, an utter neglect and diſimprovement of the Earth, and a continual diſturbance of the Public Peace.
- 1884 November 1, H. M. J., “A Handbook of the Diseases of the Eye and Their Treatment. By Henry R[osborough] Swanzy, A.M., M.B., F.R.S.C.I; Surgeon to the National Eye and Ear Infirmary; Ophthalmic Surgeon to the Adelaide Hospital, Dublin, &c. 127 Illustrations. London: H. K. Lewis. 1884. 8vo. Pp. 442. [book review]”, in The Dublin Journal of Medical Science, volume LXXVIII, number CLV (Third Series), Dublin: Fannin and Company, […]; London: Longmans & Co.; Simpkin, Marshall & Co.; Edinburgh: Maclachlan and Stewart; Paris: Hachette & Co., →OCLC, page 434:
  From day to day the intelligent student can watch the course of the affection before him, notice the finest shades of improvement or disimprovement, test the results of treatment, and verify for himself the truth of both diagnosis and prognosis.
- 1997, Fred [W.] Glover, Manuel Laguna, “Special Topics”, in Tabu Search, Boston, Mass.: Kluwer Academic Publishers, →ISBN; republished Boston, Mass.: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2002 (5th printing), →ISBN, section 7.2 (Tabu Thresholding), page 231:
  There is an appeal to methods like simulated annealing and threshold acceptance that make no recourse to memory, but that operate simply by imposing a monotonically declining ceiling on objective function levels or degrees of disimprovement (treated probabilistically or deterministically).
- 2010, Rhona Trench, “Sacrificial Blood”, in Bloody Living: The Loss of Selfhood in the Plays of Marina Carr (Reimagining Ireland; 20), Bern: Peter Lang, →ISBN, page 226:
  [Marina] Carr's transposition of Aeschylus into the twenty first century, somewhat removed from the tragedic forms of ancient Greek writing, reflects some of the disimprovements of contemporary Irish life brought about by power and greed.
(informal, rare, influenced by the German noun Verschlimmbesserung) attempt to make something better while ending up worse than before.

Translations

reduction from a better to a worse state — see also deterioration

References

^ “disimprovement, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1896.

[1] “disimprovement, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1896.

[1]