στρατηγία

Forms

στρᾰτηγῐ́ᾱ (stratēgíā) f (genitive στρᾰτηγῐ́ᾱς); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Ancient Greek στρατηγός (stratēgós, “general”) + -ία (-ía).^[1][2] στρατηγός (stratēgós), Doric στραταγός (stratagós), is a compound of στρατός (stratós, “army”) and the root of ἄγω (ágō, “to lead”).^[3][4] The word for army is probably “camping army”, from Proto-Indo-European *str̥-tó-, the participle of Proto-Indo-European *ster- (“to spread out”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Herodotus, Euripides and Thucydides use it in the 5th century BC for the office of general, a military command.^[5][6][7]

Semantic evolution

At Athens it was the office of the ten elected generals, and the word was used of other high offices that bore the title: the presidency of the Achaean League, the office of the nome governor in Ptolemaic Egypt and the Roman praetorship.^[5][6][2] It also meant the tenure of a command and the campaign itself, and in Xenophon and Plato the skill of a general, generalship.^[5][6] Later it named a stratagem, a province governed by a general, and in the tacticians a phalanx division of 4,096 men.^[5][2]

English took strategy in 1810, partly from French stratégie and partly directly through the Latinized Greek word.^[4] Modern Greek στρατηγία (stratigía) is a learned word for the rank and term of a general.^[8]

Timeline

• 5th century BC – Herodotus, Euripides and Thucydides use it for a military command.^[5][6]
• 5th–4th century BC – Plato and Xenophon use it for generalship as a skill.^[5][6]
• 2nd century BC – Polybius uses it for the presidency of the Achaean League.^[5]
• 1st century BC to 1st century AD – Strabo uses it for a province governed by a general.^[5]
• 1st–2nd century AD – Plutarch uses it for the Roman praetorship.^[5][6]
• 1810 – English strategy is first recorded.^[4]
• Modern Greek – The learned στρατηγία (stratigía) means the office and term of a general.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. The office of general; military command, on land or at sea.^[5][6]
2. (Athens) The office of στρατηγός (stratēgós).^[5][6]
3. The presidency of the Achaean League; in Egypt, the office of a nome governor; at Rome, the praetorship.^[5][6]
4. The term of a command; a campaign.^[5][6]
5. Generalship, the art of a commander; a piece of strategy.^[5][6]
6. A province governed by a general.^[5]
7. (tactics) A force of 4,096 men.^[5]

Related words

• στρατηγός (stratēgós)
• στρατός (stratós)
• ἄγω (ágō)
• English strategy

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Πάπυρος–Larousse–Britannica, Μέγα Λεξικό της Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens: Πάπυρος
3. ^ a b Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
7. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
8. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki