a. and sb. Arch. [ad. Gr.-L. systȳlos (Vitruvius), a. Gr. σύστῡλος, f. σύν SYN- + στῦλος column, pillar. Cf. F. systyle.] adj. Applied to architecture in which the columns are close together, viz. at a distance from each other of twice their thickness; sb. a building characterized by such intercolumniation.
[1563. Shute, Archit., F j. Sistylos,… whose pillers standeth distant one from the other .2. Diameters, or .2. and a halfe at the fourdest.]
1704. J. Harris, Lex. Techn., I. Systyle … is a Building where the Pillars stand thick, but not altogether so close as in the Pychnostyle.
1771. W. Newton, trans. Vitruvius’ Archit., III. iii. (1791), 52, note. The eustyle intercolumns may likewise be two and a hall diameters, as the mean between those of the dyastyle and systyle, instead of two and a quarter, which is nearer to the systyle.
1789. P. Smyth, trans. Aldrich’s Archit. (1818), 147. Whose intercolumniations in the middle are systyle, on each side pycnostyle.
1844. Civil Eng. & Arch. Jrnl., VII. 23/2. The Pantheon at Rome is a systyle.
