Politics & SocietyGreek → English
Tactics
/ˈtæktɪks/noun
The methods used to gain an immediate advantage, in battle, sport or argument.
The Greek roots
τακτική
taktikḗ
art of arranging
τάσσειν
tássein
to arrange, draw up
Literally: “the art of arrangement”
The story of the word
τακτικὴ τέχνη is the art of drawing troops into formation, a narrower business than στρατηγία, the general's whole design, which is why tactics still sits one level below strategy. Aelian and Asclepiodotus left Greek manuals on it, and they are almost entirely about spacing, files and the depth of the phalanx. The same verb τάσσειν gives syntax, the arranging of words, and taxonomy, the arranging of species.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Modern Latin → English
- First recorded
- 17th century
The same roots elsewhere
Other languages reached for exactly the same Greek pieces.
Same family
syntaxtaxonomytaxidermy
In a sentence
Their tactics changed completely after the first goal.
Delay was a tactic, not an accident.