strategema

Forms

stratēgēma n (genitive stratēgēmatis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek στρατήγημα (stratḗgēma, “act of a general, stratagem”),^[2][3][4] from στρατηγέω (stratēgéō, “to be a general”), a derivative of στρατηγός (stratēgós, “general”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cicero uses it in a letter to Atticus (5.2.2) in the extended sense of a trick: a man who saw he was being watched struck at him “with a stratagem” (strategemate hominem percussit).^[2][6] In the De natura deorum he gives the word in Greek letters, as the Greek name for a commander's plan.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The proper sense is a piece of generalship, a military ruse.^[2][7] Valerius Maximus says that a remarkable kind of cunning goes by the Greek name strategemata,^[2][6] and Frontinus collected such ruses in his Strategemata.^[2][6][8] Florus also has it of a ruse of war.^[9]

In medieval British Latin it kept both senses, a stratagem in war and any ruse or trick, and it appears in the title of Frontinus' work.^[8] Through Italian stratagemma and French stratagème it reached English as stratagem in the late 15th century; the second ⟨a⟩ is a Romance misspelling.^[5]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of a trick in a letter to Atticus.^[2][3]
• c. 120 AD – Florus uses it of a ruse of war.^[9][3]
• late 15th century – English borrows stratagem from French, which had it from Italian.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. (military) A piece of generalship, a stratagem of war.^[2][7][6]
2. (by extension) Any ruse or trick.^[2][6]

Related words

• stratēgēmaticus
• stratēgēum
• stratēgica
• stratēgus
• English stratagem

Usage notes

Lewis & Short note the dative and ablative plural strategematibus in Frontinus,^[7] and Gaffiot strategematis in Valerius Maximus;^[9] Georges records a Greek genitive plural in -atōn.^[6] The spelling stratagēma is also found.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
5. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d e f Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
7. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.