/ˈsɪn.tæks/·noun·1574 (earliest attested English use, in grammatical sense)·Established
Origin
From Greek syntaxis, literally 'an arranging together,' combining syn- (together) and tassein (to arrange, originally a military term for drawing up troops in formation), syntax named the ordering of soldiers before it ever described the ordering of words, and later crossed into computing to describe the formal rules governing symbol arrangement in programming languages.
Definition
The arrangement of words and phrases to create well-formedsentences in a language, from Greek σύνταξις (sýntaxis), combining σύν (sýn, 'together', from PIE *sem-) and τάξις (táxis, 'arrangement', from PIE *teh₂g- 'to touch, handle, arrange').
The Full Story
GreekClassical Greek (5th–4th century BCE)well-attested
The word 'syntax' enters English from Latin 'syntaxis', itself borrowed from Greek 'σύνταξις' (súntaxis), meaning 'a putting together in order, arrangement, organisation'. The Greek term is a compound of 'σύν' (sún, 'together') and 'τάξις' (táxis, 'an ordering, arrangement'), the latter derived from the verb 'τάσσειν' (tássein, 'to arrange, to put in order'). In classical Greek, súntaxis had broad application: it referred to military formations, civic organisation, and financial contributions before grammarians narrowed it to describe
BCE were among the first to use the term in a specifically linguistic sense. Apollonius Dyscolus (2nd century CE) wrote 'Perí Suntáxeōs' (On Syntax), the earliest
English 'tangent', 'tangible', 'tactile', 'contact', and 'intact'. The prefix 'σύν' traces to PIE *sem- ('one, together'), which also yields English 'same', 'simultaneous', 'simple' (from Latin 'simplus'), and 'ensemble'. English adopted 'syntax' in the early 17th century directly from French 'syntaxe' or Latin 'syntaxis', initially in the strict grammatical sense of sentence construction rules. By the 20th century, the term expanded into logic, computer science, and semiotics, describing the formal rules governing any symbol system. Key roots: *tag- (Proto-Indo-European: "to touch, to handle, to arrange — source of Greek tássein, Latin tangere, and English tangent, tactile, contact, intact"), *sem- (Proto-Indo-European: "one, together, as one — source of Greek sún, Latin simul, and English same, simultaneous, simple"), τάσσειν (tássein) (Ancient Greek: "to arrange, to put in order, to assign to a place — verbal root of táxis").