συστηματικός

Forms

συστημᾰτῐκός (sustēmatikós) m (feminine συστημᾰτῐκή, neuter συστημᾰτῐκόν); first/second declension^[1]

Etymology

From σύστημα (sústēma, “organized whole, system”) with the suffix -ικός (-ikós).^[1][2][3] σύστημα (sústēma) is from συνίστημι (sunístēmi, “to put together”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first records are in Plutarch (Moralia 1142f, of musical systems) and in Sextus Empiricus, for "forming an organized whole", systematic.^[4][2]

Semantic evolution

It was a technical word of the Roman period: in metre Hephaestion uses it of verses that form a complete system; in music it describes changes of system; and Galen, who has most of its occurrences, uses it of an irregular pulse or breathing made of a series of beats rather than a single one.^[4][2][5] Its opposite is ἁπλοῦς (haploûs, “simple”).^[6][7]

Late Latin borrowed it as systematicus, the source of English systematic and French systématique.^[1][8] Modern Greek συστηματικός (sistimatikós) is a learned word whose modern senses ("methodical", "systematic theology") come from the French and English words.^[8][3]

Timeline

• 1st–2nd century AD – Plutarch uses it of changes of musical system.^[4][2][9]
• 2nd century AD – Hephaestion uses it of metres that form a system, and Galen of the pulse and breathing.^[4][5][9]
• 2nd–3rd century AD – Sextus Empiricus uses it for "forming an organized whole".^[4][7][9]
• Modern Greek – συστηματικός (sistimatikós) means "methodical, systematic", after French and English.^[8]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Forming an organized whole, systematic.^[4][7]
2. (metre) Forming a complete system.^[4][2]
3. (music) Of systems or concords.^[2]
4. (philosophy) constitutive.^[4]
5. (medicine) Of the pulse or breathing: irregular over a series of beats.^[4][7]

Related words

• σύστημα (sústēma)
• συνίστημι (sunístēmi)
• English systematic

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Bailly, Anatole (2020), Dictionnaire grec-français, Bailly 2020 Hugo Chávez ed., ed. Gérard Gréco et al.
3. ^ a b Πάπυρος–Larousse–Britannica, Μέγα Λεξικό της Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens: Πάπυρος
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
6. ^ Charbonnet, André (2025), Chæréphon, v4.7: supplement to Bailly from papyri, inscriptions and recent lexica
7. ^ a b c d Pape, Wilhelm (1914), Griechisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 3rd ed., rev. Max Sengebusch, Braunschweig: Vieweg
8. ^ a b c Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
9. ^ a b c Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge