syntax

Etymology

It is borrowed from French syntaxe and directly borrowed from Late Latin syntaxis,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} from Ancient Greek σύνταξις (súntaxis, “arrangement, order; a grammatical construction”),^[7][2] from σύν (sún, “together”) and τάξις (táxis, “arrangement”),^[7] after συντάσσω (suntássō, “to put together in order”), from τάσσω (tássō, “to arrange”).^[7][3][4] The OED takes it partly from the Latin and partly from the Greek word: in Latin syntaxis meant a grammar book in British sources from the 13th century, and the grammarian Priscian used the Greek word for the order of words.^[7] The French word is recorded from 1555,^[7] and Dictionary.com calls the English word short for the earlier syntaxis.^[8][7] It is related to tactics.^[3][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The rules by which words are arranged into sentences in a language: 1548, in a new edition of the Shorte Introduction of Grammar.^[7][5] Barnhart and Etymonline instead date it to about 1600–1605, in the sense of an orderly arrangement of parts, with the grammatical sense later.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

Besides grammar, the word was used in the 17th century for any orderly arrangement of parts: Bacon has it in 1605,^[7][3] and between 1615 and 1680 it was used for the connection of bones in a joint.^[7] In Jesuit and other Catholic schools Syntax was the name of a senior class, above Grammar, from 1628.^[7] The grammatical sense of the word order of a particular sentence or writer is from before 1684.^[7] In the 20th century it was carried over to logic in 1922, after Wittgenstein's German,^[7][2] and to programming languages in 1958.^[7][2] In 18th- and 19th-century slang a syntax was a schoolmaster, a use made popular by Combe's Tour of Dr Syntax (1813).^[10]

Timeline

• 1548 – the rules for arranging words in sentences.^[7][5]
• 1605 – orderly arrangement of parts, in Bacon.^[7][3]
• 1615 – a joint between bones (obsolete by 1680).^[7]
• 1628 – the name of a class in Jesuit schools.^[7]
• 1771 – slang, a schoolmaster.^[10]
• 1922 – logic, the rules of a formal language.^[7][2]
• 1958 – computing, the rules of a programming language.^[7][2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The way words and phrases are arranged to form sentences in a language, or the rules governing this: The syntax of the sentence is clumsy.^[11][5][7]
2. The branch of linguistics or grammar that studies this arrangement.^[11][5]
3. (logic) The rules that govern well-formed formulas in a logical system.^[11][7]
4. (computing) The rules for structuring code in a programming language.^[7][2]
5. Any orderly or systematic arrangement of parts.^[11][5][7]

Word family

• syntactic
• syntactician

Related words

• tactics
• syntaxis
• taxis

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
11. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins