Also 7 sys-, syzigie, 7–8 sys-, syzygie, 8–9 syzigy, 9 syzigee. [ad. late L. sȳzygia, a. Gr. συζυγία yoke, pair, copulation, conjunction, f. σύζυγος yoked, paired, f. σύν SYN- + ζυγ-: ζευγνύναι to yoke. Cf. F. syzygie (1584 in Hatz.-Darm.).]
1. Astron. † a. Orig. = CONJUNCTION 3. Obs.
1656. Blount, Glossogr., Sysigie (sysigia), a conjunction, a coupling. The conjunction of the Moone with the Sunne; the new moone.
1686. Goad, Celest. Bodies, I. xi. 43. The Great and Leading Syzygic, or human Aspect with the ☉.
1690. Leybourn, Curs. Math., 758. So that in every true Syzygy, the Centre of the Deferent agrees with the Centre of the Earth.
1704. J. Harris, Lex. Techn., I. Syzygie, in Astronomy, is the same with the Conjunction of any two Planets, or Stars, or when they are both referred to the same Point in the Heavens; or when they are referred to the same Degree of the Ecliptick, by a Circle of Longitude passing through them both.
b. Now extended to include both conjunction and opposition (OPPOSITION 3) of two heavenly bodies, or either of the points at which these take place, esp. in the case of the moon with the sun (new and full moon). Often opposed to QUADRATURE 4 b, c.
1715. trans. Gregory’s Astron. (1726), I. 123. If the Nodes of the Orbit of the Body L, be in the Syzygies of the Body S.
1728. Chambers, Cycl., s.v., On the Phænomena and Circumstances of the Syzygies, a great Part of the Lunar Theory depends.
1749. Phil. Trans., XLVI. 150. The greatest Spring-Tides, and least Neap-Tides, are commonly on the third or fourth Day, after the Syzygies and Quadratures.
1833. Herschel, Astron., xi. 325. Suppose the disturbing body to be fixed in the line of nodes, or the nodes to be in syzygy.
1869. Phillips, Vesuv., iv. 112. The eruptions were sensibly strengthened at the syzigies and weakened at the quadratures of the moon.
1882. Nature, 27 July, 292/1. The sunspot maxima … are nearly always associated with configurations in which Venus and Earth in conjunction or opposition, have Jupiter in or near syzygy or quadrature.
† 2. Anat. pl. The pairs of cranial nerves. Obs.
1681. trans. Willis’ Rem. Med. Wks., Vocab., Syzygies, are the nerves that carry the sense from the brain to the whole body.
3. Biol. a. A suture or immovable union of two joints of a crinoid; also, the joints thus sutured. b. The conjunction of two organisms without loss of identity, as in the genus DIPLOZOON; a syzygium.
1873. C. W. Thomson, Depths of Sea, ix. 440. The first of the brachial joints, that is to say, the joint immediately above the radial axillary, is, as it were, split in two by a peculiar kind of joint, called, by Müller, a ‘syzygy.’ Ibid. When the animal is dying, it generally breaks off its arms at these syzygies.
1888. Rolleston & Jackson, Anim. Life, 572 (Crinoidea). The lines of union … may be obliterated…. The ligamentous connections may become very close…. Two joints thus connected are termed a syzygy. Ibid., 573. The ligaments between brachials not united by syzygy appear to be contractile.
4. Anc. Prosody. A dipody, or combination of two feet in one meter (METRE sb.1 4).
[1706. Phillips (ed. Kersey), Syzygia … Among Grammarians, the coupling or clapping of different Feet together in Greek or Latin Verse.]
1836. J. R. Major, Guide Grk. Trag., 109. Some grammarians, in speaking of anapæstic, iambic, and trochaic verse, use the term syzygy (συζυγια) or dipodia (διποδια) instead of metre.
5. Math. A group of rational integral functions so related that, on their being severally multiplied by other rational integral functions, the sum of the products vanishes identically; also, the relation between such functions.
1850. Sylvester, in Cambr. & Dubl. Math. Jrnl., V. 276. The members of any group of functions, more than two in number, whose nullity is implied in the relation of double contact,… must be in syzygy. Thus PQ, PQR, QR, must form a syzygy.
1867. Cayley, Math. Papers, VI. 147. While for the degree 5 we obtain 3 covariants and a single syzygy, for the degree 6 we obtain only 2 covariants, but as many as 7 syzygies.
1869. W. K. Clifford, in Proc. Lond. Math. Soc., 11 Nov., 11. If the 12th powers of the nil-facta in the tangential equations of 43 points are connected by a linear syzygy, the 43 points are on a quartic curve.
1886. Hammond, in Amer. Jrnl. Math., VIII. 19. Syzygy Tables for the Binary Quintic.
6. A pair of connected or correlative things; in Gnostic theology, a couple or pair of opposites, or of æons.
1838. Sir W. Hamilton, Logic, xx. (1866), I. 402. The Greek logicians after Aristotle, looking merely to the two premises in combination, called these Syzygies.
1853. J. Martineau, Ess. (1891), III. 470. Ourselves and the external world we know … only under relation; of subject, for example, to object;… of phenomenon to cause. Yet, in pursuing this relative course of cognition, we are apt to be struck with the belief that one of the two terms in each of the primary syzygies transcends relation at the very moment of creating it.
1875. Lightfoot, Comm. Col., 166. The system of syzygies, or pairs of opposites, is a favourite doctrine of this work [sc. Clementine Homilies], and in these John stands contrasted to Jesus, as Simon Magus to Simon Peter, as the false to the true.
1890. J. Martineau, Seat Author. Relig., II. ii. 237. The fourth Gospel … is … itself a Gnosticism, only baptized and regenerate: no longer lingering aloft with the divine emanation in a fanciful sphere of aeons and of syzygies.
1909. Gwatkin, Early Church Hist., xv. II. 37. Valentinus, says Victorinus, teaches a pleroma and thinly æons, and these he arranges in syzygies or couples.
