syndetic

English

Etymology

From Latin syndeticus, from Ancient Greek συνδετικός (sundetikós), from σύνδετον (súndeton, “syndeton, use of conjunctions, a binding”) + -ικός (-ikós, “-ic: forming adjectives”), the neuter substantive of σῠ́νδετος (súndetos, “bound, joined”), from συνδεῖν (sundeîn, “to join, to bind”), from σῠν- (sun-, “together”) + δεῖν (deîn, “to bind, to tie”). Equivalent to syndeton +‎ -ic.

Adjective

syndetic (not comparable)

1. (grammar) Of or related to syndeton, the use of a conjunction.

   Guns and butter is a syndetic phrase.

   • 1970, Mats Ryden, Coordination of Relative Clauses in Sixteenth Century English, page 73:
   • Asymmetry in pronominal sequencing is a recurrent feature of syndetic coordination, though with considerable variation in relation to literary genre.
2. (grammar) Synonym of connective, serving to connect.
   • 1874, Clair James Grece translating Eduard Adolf F. Maetzner as An English Grammar:

     With the syndetic juxtaposition of distinct members, the article is not often repeated.

3. (library science) Synonym of crossreferenced.
   • 1958, Thomas Landau, Encyclopaedia of Librarianship, page 299:

     Syndetic, applied to an alphabetical subject catalogue or dictionary catalogue which includes cross-references as connecting links between subjects.

   The dictionary includes syndetic references.

4. (mathematics) Having bounded gaps between its terms.

   The gap between successive members of a syndetic set may vary but is always less than some specific value: i.e., there is an integer n such that {x,x+1,x+2,⋯,x+n}∩S≠∅ for any x∈N.

Antonyms

• (antonym(s) of “grammar & library science”): asyndetic

Coordinate terms

• (math): thick

Derived terms

• piecewise syndetic
• syndetical
• syndetically
• syndeticity
• thickly syndetic

 

Related terms

• asyndetic
• polysyndetic
• syndesis
• syndeton

 

References

• “syndetic, adj.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 2022.

Anagrams

• incysted