dissensus

English

WOTD – 26 September 2016

Etymology

From Latin dissēnsus (“disagreement, quarrel; dissension, conflict”); or a blend of dissent +‎ consensus.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /dɪˈsɛn.səs/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: dis‧sen‧sus

Noun

dissensus (usually uncountable, plural dissensuses)

1. Disagreement, especially when widespread.
   • 1874, Edmund Spiess, “Comparative Study of Religions, in Its Bearing upon Christian Apologetics”, in Philip Schaff, S[amuel] Irenæus Prime, editors, History, Essays, Orations, and Other Documents of the Sixth General Conference of the Evangelical Alliance, Held in New York, October 2–12, 1873, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, publishers, Franklin Square, →OCLC, page 310:

     Now it is apparent that neither the consensus of Christianity with other religions, nor its dissensus from them, nor the absolute or relative superiority which we claim for it, can be made evident without a thorough and methodical comparison of all religions.

   • 1998, Gregg Barak, editor, Integrative Criminology (International Library of Criminology, Criminal Justice & Penology), Aldershot, Hampshire, Brookfield, Vt.: Ashgate Publishing, →ISBN, page 569:

     Underlying a real and culturally meaningful general consensus about the wrongness of rape, there can indeed be many contextual dissensuses about rape being okay. Only when we allow a reified conception of consensus to drive out the nuanced understanding in the ethnographic literature of the way people talk when they accuse and excuse crime do we see consensus-dissensus as being an "insoluble inconsistency" ([Christopher] Uggen at 496) at the foundation of the theory.

   • 2006, Virginia A. Hettinger, Stefanie A. Lindquist, Wendy L. Martinek, “Horizontal and Vertical Dissensus”, in Judging on a Collegial Court: Influences on Federal Appellate Decision Making (Constitutionalism and Democracy), University of Virginia Press, →ISBN, page 5:

     In this chapter, we explore two forms of dissensus. The first is horizontal dissensus, or that which occurs within a three-judge panel on the courts of appeals. Judges signal this form of dissensus by writing separate opinions that take the form of a dissent or concurrence. The second is vertical dissensus, which occurs when a court of appeals panel disagrees with the lower court over the proper resolution of the case. This form of dissensus is observed when the court of appeals reverses the lower court's decision, either in whole or in part.

   • 2014, Kari Palonen, José María Rosales, Tapani Turkka, “Introduction: The Parliamentary Politics of Dissensus”, in Kari Palonen, José María Rosales, Tapani Turkka, editors, The Politics of Dissensus: Parliament in Debate (Social Sciences & Humanities; 2), Santander: Cantabria University Press; [Madrid]: McGraw-Hill Interamericana de España, →ISBN, page 3:

     Certainly parliamentary politics is indebted to the rhetorical culture of addressing issues from opposite views and debating the alternatives pro et contra. In parliamentary procedure dissensus and debate are institutionalised: no motion is approved without a thorough examination of and confrontation among imaginable alternatives.

Antonyms

• consensus

Related terms

Category English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *sent- (feel) not found

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /di.sɛ̃.sys/

Noun

dissensus m (plural dissensus)

1. This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.

   Antonym: consensus

Latin

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /disˈsen.sus/, [d̪ɪs̠ˈs̠ẽːs̠ʊs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /disˈsen.sus/, [d̪isˈsɛnsus]

Noun

dissēnsus m (genitive dissēnsūs); fourth declension

1. disagreement, quarrel
2. dissension, conflict

Declension

Fourth-declension noun.

	singular	plural
nominative	dissēnsus	dissēnsūs
genitive	dissēnsūs	dissēnsuum
dative	dissēnsuī	dissēnsibus
accusative	dissēnsum	dissēnsūs
ablative	dissēnsū	dissēnsibus
vocative	dissēnsus	dissēnsūs

Descendants

• Italian: dissenso
• Piedmontese: dissens
• Spanish: disenso

Adjective

dissēnsus (feminine dissēnsa, neuter dissēnsum); first/second-declension adjective

1. different
2. differing

Declension

First/second-declension adjective.

	singular				plural
	masculine	feminine	neuter		masculine	feminine	neuter
nominative	dissēnsus	dissēnsa	dissēnsum		dissēnsī	dissēnsae	dissēnsa
genitive	dissēnsī	dissēnsae	dissēnsī		dissēnsōrum	dissēnsārum	dissēnsōrum
dative	dissēnsō	dissēnsae	dissēnsō		dissēnsīs
accusative	dissēnsum	dissēnsam	dissēnsum		dissēnsōs	dissēnsās	dissēnsa
ablative	dissēnsō	dissēnsā	dissēnsō		dissēnsīs
vocative	dissēnse	dissēnsa	dissēnsum		dissēnsī	dissēnsae	dissēnsa

References

• “dissensus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “dissensus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• dissensus in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• dissensus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.