syntagm

Noun

syntagma (plural syntagmata or syntagmas)

1. A constituent segment within a text, such as a word or a phrase that forms a syntactic unit.
   • The syntagma “the God of peace” (in Greek ὁ Θεὸς τῆς εἰρήνης) occurs in all undisputed Pauline letters.
2. An arrangement of units that together bears a meaning.
   • To combine a sequence of shots into a larger syntagma, there has to be a connection between the successive shots.
3. (Ancient Greece) A Macedonian phalanx fighting formation consisting of 256 men with long spears (sarissae).
   • The men forming the syntagma were arranged in a square of sixteen files of sixteen.
4. (dated) An organized structural, functional unit of anatomical or chemical subunits.

   Synonyms:

   tagma

5. A treatise or compendium.
   • Though he informs us in the preface that his object was to trace the outlines of the great "latifundium regni philosophici" in a single syntagma, yet he really does no more than arrange a number of separate treatises or manuals, and even dictionaries, within the limits of a couple of folios.1905 [1878], John Morley, Diderot and the Encyclopædists, volume 1