Pl. syllabi or syllabuses. [mod.L. syllabus, usually referred to an alleged Gr. σύλλαβος. Syllabus appears to be founded on a corrupt reading syllabos in some early printed editions—the Medicean MS. has sillabos—of Cicero Epp. ad Atticum IV. iv., where the reading indicated as correct by comparison with the MS. readings in IV. v. and viii. is sittybas or Gr. σιττύβας, acc. pl. of sittyba, σιττύβα parchment label or title-slip on a book. (Cf. Tyrrell and Purser, Correspondence of Cicero, nos. 107, 108, 112, Comm. and Adnot. Crit.) Syllabos was græcized by later editors as συλλάβους, from which a spurious σύλλαβος was deduced and treated as a derivative of our συλλαμβάνειν to put together, collect (cf. SYLLABLE).
In the passage from S. Augustine’s Confessions, XIII. xv. (‘ibi legunt [sc. angeli] sine syllabis temporum quid velit aeterna voluntas tua’) commonly adduced as further evidence of L. syllabus, the word is clearly syllaba syllable.]
1. A concise statement or table of the heads of a discourse, the contents of a treatise, the subjects of a series of lectures, etc.; a compendium, abstract, summary, epitome.
1656. Blount, Glossogr., Syllabus, a Table or Index in a Book, to shew places or matter by Letters or Figures.
1667. Jer. Taylor, Gt. Exemp. (ed. 4), I. vi. § 22. 160. The Apostle expresses it still by Synonyma’s, Tasting of the heavenly gift, and made partakers of the holy Ghost...: all which also are a syllabus or collection of the several effects of the graces bestowed in Baptism.
1775. T. Sheridan, Art Reading, 11. The first article in the syllabus, entitled, A scheme of the vowels.
1796. Morse, Amer. Geog., I. 526. Presenting to the students a compend or syllabus of their lectures.
1818. Scott, Hrt. Midl., i. Syllabus of lectures.
1822–7. Good, Study Med. (1829), I. 123. He preached with as much fluency as ever…, with nothing more than a syllabus of his discourse before him.
1881. Southern Law Rev. (St. Louis, Missouri), VII. 298. Among these duties [of the official reporter of a Court] is the preparation of syllabi of all decisions.
1886. Athenæum, 2 Oct., 431/1. The ‘Retrospections’ should have been furnished … with a copious syllabus or list of contents.
2. R. C. Ch. A summary statement of points decided and errors condemned by ecclesiastical authority; spec. that annexed to the encyclical Quanta cura of Pope Pius IX., 8 Dec. 1864.
1876. B. Martin, Messiah’s Kingd., V. i. 229. The right of the Pope to depose princes … is reaffirmed in the Syllabus.
1907. Edin. Rev., Oct., 416. The Syllabus is a voice speaking in a dead language from a dead world.
