Dissonancer

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. One who creates or produces a lack of harmony in music ; a person who introduces disagreement or discord in a group ; someone whose actions or words result in cognitive or emotional conflict
2. A generator of musical clashes ; an instigator of interpersonal strife or contention ; an individual whose choices lead to mental or social tension
3. A person responsible for jarring combinations of sound ; one who brings about disharmony among others ; an agent whose influence produces psychological or societal unease

Etymology: Dissonancer is built the way many English agent nouns are: a base word, "dissonance," plus the suffix "-er," which marks someone who does or makes the thing named. "Dissonance" itself comes from Latin "dissonare," made of "dis-," meaning "apart" or "away," and "sonare," "to sound." The literal sense is "sounding apart," which is why the idea of clashing notes sits at the core of the family. Because the form is an ad hoc coinage rather than a long-established term, it does not appear in most standard dictionaries. Its meaning follows directly from its parts: a person or thing that produces dissonance, whether in music, in argument, or in social harmony. Other agent nouns built the same way include "singer" from "sing" and "dancer" from "dance," so the pattern would be familiar to any English speaker.

Synonyms: discordant sound, cacophony, inharmony, clash, conflict

Antonyms: harmony, consonance, accord, agreement, melody