Also 7 syntaxe. [ad. F. syntaxe, † sintaxe, ad. late L. syntaxis, a. Gr. σύνταξις SYNTAXIS.]
† 1. Orderly or systematic arrangement of parts or elements; constitution (of body); a connected order or system of things. Obs.
1605. Bacon, Adv. Learn., II. xix. § 1. 69 b. Concerning the Syntax and disposition of studies, that men may know in what order or pursuite to reade.
1661. Glanvill, Van. Dogm., xii. 116. They owe no other dependence to the first, then what is common to the whole Syntax of beings.
a. 1676. Hale, Prim. Orig. Man., II. iv. (1677), 157. Perchance … no Man had ever the same Syntax of Phantasie or Imagination that he had.
1696. J. Edwards, Demonstr. Exist. God, II. 124. This single [argument] from the fabrick and syntax of man’s body is sufficient to evince the truth of a Deity.
† b. Physical connection, junction. Obs.
1615. Crooke, Body of Man, 595. Their articulation doth not differ from the Syntax or coniunction of other parts.
† c. Connection, congruity, agreement. Obs.
1656. S. Holland, Zara (1719), 123. What Syntax is there betwixt a Helmet and a Cap of Maintenance?
1675. Burthogge, Causa Dei, p. vi. I might display the Syntax, Harmony, Connexion, Concinnity of the Notions I employ.
d. That branch of mathematics that deals with the various arrangements of a number of things, as permutations, combinations, and the like.
1861. Sylvester, Coll. Math. Papers (1908), II. 269. The theory of groups…, standing in the closest relation to the doctrine of combinatorial aggregation, or what for shortness may be termed syntax.
2. Gram. a. The arrangement of words (in their appropriate forms) by which their connection and relation in a sentence are shown. Also, the constructional uses of a word or form or a class of words or forms, or those characteristic of a particular author. b. The department of grammar that deals with the established usages of grammatical construction and the rules deduced therefrom: distinguished from accidence, which deals with the inflexional forms of words as such.
1613. R. Cawdrey, Table Alph. (ed. 3), Syntaxe, construction and order of words.
1636. B. Jonson, Eng. Gram., II. i. Syntaxe is the second part of Grammar, that teacheth the Construction of words. Ibid., II. ii. The Syntaxe of a Noune, with a Noune, is in number, and gender. Ibid., v. The Syntaxe of a Verb with a Noune is in number, and person.
1697. Bentley, Phal. (1699), 407. Neither Sense nor Syntax would allow of that Signification.
a. 1700. Evelyn, Diary, 27 Jan. 1658. He … could make congruous syntax, turne English into Latine, and vice versa.
1711. Greenwood, Eng. Gram., 29. The Syntax, or Construction of the Noun, is chiefly perform’d by the Help of certain Words call’d Prepositions.
1755. Johnson, Dict., Gram. a, Grammar, which is the art of using words properly, comprises four parts; Orthography, Etymology, Syntax, and Prosody.
1824. L. Murray, Engl. Gram. (ed. 5), I. 217. The English adjective, having but a very limited syntax.
1861. Paley, Æschylus, Prometh. (ed. 2), 38, note. ὅτου … being used as if the syntax were δεῖξαι ὑφ’ ὅτου, rather than δεῖξαι τὸ βούλευμα ὑφ’ οὖ κ.τ.λ.
1885. Grosart, Nashe’s Wks., VI. p. ix. He writes … with uncultured flabbiness, and with irritating syntax.
c. Name of a class in certain English Roman Catholic schools and colleges, next below that called poetry (see POETRY 6).
1629. Wadsworth, Pilgr., iii. 13. Father Lacy, the Reader of Poetry, and Master of the Syntax.
1655. in Foley, Rec. Eng. Prov. S. J. (1878), III. 434. I went to the College of St. Omer, where I made one year’s syntax.
1679. [see POETRY 6].
1713. in B. Ward, Hist. St. Edmund’s College (1893), iv. 58. What we call the Accidence they call Figures, which they divide into two years, one for the lower, the second for the higher, the third for grammar, the fourth for Syntax.
1897. W. Ward, Life Cdl. Wiseman (ed. 2), I. i. 8. Dr. Newsham … was Wiseman’s Professor [at Ushaw] in Syntax (in 1815), and again in Rhetoric.
