Politics & SocietyGreek → English
Tactic
/ˈtæktɪk/noun
A specific move or device used to gain an advantage in the short term.
The Greek roots
τάσσειν
tássein
to arrange, draw up in order
Literally: “of drawing up in order”
Follow a root:τάσσειν2 words
The story of the word
τακτικά meant the art of arranging men in a line, which in a hoplite battle was very nearly the whole of the art of war. The split English maintains between strategy and tactics is a modern military convention, hardened in the eighteenth century, not a Greek one. The same verb arranges words in syntax and species in taxonomy, and it stuffs animals in taxidermy, where the skin is the thing being arranged.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Modern Latin → English
- First recorded
- 17th century
Same family
syntaxtaxonomytaxidermyhypotaxis
In a sentence
Stalling was a tactic, and everyone in the room knew it.