grammar

Etymology

From Middle English gramere, from Old French gramaire (“classical learning”), from unattested Vulgar Latin *grammāria, an alteration of Latin grammatica, from Ancient Greek γραμματική (grammatikḗ, “skilled in writing”), from γράμμα (grámma, “line of writing”), from γράφω (gráphō, “write”), from Proto-Indo-European *gerbʰ- (“to carve, scratch”). Displaced native Old English stæfcræft; a doublet of glamour, glamoury, gramarye, and grimoire.

noun

1. A system of rules and principles for speaking and writing a language.
2. (uncountable, linguistics) The study of the internal structure of words (morphology) and the use of words in the construction of phrases and sentences (syntax).
3. A book describing the rules of grammar of a language.
4. (computing theory) A formal system specifying the syntax of a language.
   Because real lexicons are big and complex, from a software engineering perspective it is best to write simple grammars that have a simple, well-defined way, of pulling out the information they need from vast lexicons. That is, grammars should be thought of as separate entities which can access the information contained in lexicons. We can then use specialised mechanisms for efficiently storing the lexicon and retrieving data from it. 2006, Patrick Blackburn · Johan Bos · Kristina Striegnitz, Learn Prolog Now!, §8.2
5. Actual or presumed prescriptive notions about the correct use of a language.
6. (computing theory) A formal system defining a formal language
7. The basic rules or principles of a field of knowledge or a particular skill.
   We must learn a new grammar of power in a world that is made up more of the common good – or the common bad – than of self-interest or national interest. 2011, Javier Solana, Daniel Innerarity, Project Syndicate, The New Grammar of Power
8. (Britain, archaic) A book describing these rules or principles; a textbook.
   a grammar of geography
   To turn this sort of mixture of a gossip and a gospel into anything like a grammar of Distributism has been quite impossible. 1926, G[ilbert] K[eith] Chesterton, “VI: A Summary”, in The Outline of Sanity, London: Methuen & Co. Ltd., →OCLC
9. (UK) A grammar school.
   11 January 2012, Graeme Paton, “A green light for more grammars?”, in The Daily Telegraph:

verb

1. (obsolete, intransitive) To discourse according to the rules of grammar; to use grammar.