syntagma

Etymology

From Late Latin syntagma, from Ancient Greek σύνταγμα (súntagma, “orderly arrangement”), from συντάσσω (suntássō, “arrange together”, “to order”).

noun

1. (linguistics) A constituent segment within a text, such as a word or a phrase that forms a syntactic unit.
   The syntagma “the God of peace” (in Greek ὁ Θεὸς τῆς εἰρήνης) occurs in all undisputed Pauline letters.
2. (semiotics) An arrangement of units that together bears a meaning.
   To combine a sequence of shots into a larger syntagma, there has to be a connection between the successive shots.
   The Gospel is not a system of Theology, nor a Syntagma of theoretical propositions and conclusions for the enlargement of speculative knowledge, ethical or metaphysical. 1825, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, “Aphorisms on that which is indeed spiritual religion”, in Aids to Reflection, page 198
3. (history) A Macedonian phalanx fighting formation consisting of 256 men with long spears (sarissae).
   The men forming the syntagma were arranged in a square of sixteen files of sixteen.
4. (biology) an organized structural, functional unit of anatomical or chemical subunits: equivalent to "tagma", or a structure comprising several tagmata in various contexts.