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'Disharmony' is a Greek word with Latin prefix meaning 'absence of harmony' or 'bad harmony'. So why not 'dysharmony', as 'dysfunction' or 'dyspepsia'?

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If you are looking for logic in word spellings, English is not the language for you. – T.E.D. Jul 6 '12 at 14:00

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Dis is a Latin prefix, whereas Dys is a greek one. Much of English stems from Latin, so it certainly makes sense for Dis to be the more common prefix, though you are correct that Dys as a prefix has a similar meaning to Dis.

Dys is often used in a scientific context (where Greek gets a fair amount of use in addition to Latin) for terms like Dysgraphia and Dyslexia. Dys tends to be used more to mean "bad, improper" rather than "the opposite of," as you'll note from my examples; Dysgraphia is not the opposite of writing, but rather means that one's writing is impaired.

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i found actually a word combination 'marital dysharmony' so this variant is also of some use – Igor Urazowski Nov 8 '11 at 3:55
In medical terminology, dys- generally means "difficult", not "bad or improper" - dyspnea, difficulty breathing; dysphagia, difficulty eating; dyslexia, difficulty reading. I do admit that dysfunction, as in "sexual dysfunction", could be read either way. – MT_Head Jul 7 '12 at 6:17

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