supersymmetry

Etymology

From super- + symmetry. In the modern physics sense, coined by Pakistani physicist Abdus Salam and American physicist John Strathdee in 1974 as super-symmetry, in a paper in Physics Letters B as a simplification of super-gauge symmetry used by Julius Wess and Bruno Zumino.

noun

1. (physics) A theory that attempts to unify the fundamental physical forces and which proposes a physical symmetry between bosons and fermions.
   We suggest therefore that the expression "super-symmetry" might be more appropriate for the global concept and reserve the word "gauge" for local symmetries. 1974, A Salam, “Super-symmetry and non-Abelian gauges”, in Physics Letters B
   Supersymmetry is the concept that known particles – such as electrons, quarks and photons – have a heavier and as-yet-undetected "superpartner". 2013-11-22, Alok Jha, “Stephen Hawking: physics would be 'more interesting' if Higgs boson hadn't been found”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 24, page 32