stratagem (2009-04-23)

Part of Speech: noun

Pronunciation: ['stræ-tê-jêm]

Definition: A clever scheme or plan to achieve an objective, a cunning ploy.

Usage: A stratagem is a 'con' that isn't necessarily harmful, "Pretending to be a poor, shy farmer from the prairie isn't a stratagem likely to attract women in the night clubs of New York." You will find modern stratagems and classic ones: "Llewellyn's stratagem for advancement was to marry the boss's daughter." (So long as he doesn't pretend to be a shy farmer from the prairie.)

Suggested Usage: "Stratagem" and "strategy" come from the same Greek word but are spelled differently. The middle vowel in the former is [a], while in the latter, it is [e]. The reason for this difference is that "stratagem" was taken from the Doric dialect of Greek, spoken in the south, while "strategy" was taken from the Athenian or northern dialect. The two words have very similar meanings but a strategy is usually a more complex plan, possibly itself comprised of several stratagems for accomplishing individual steps of the overall strategy.

Etymology: Today's word comes to us via French from Latin "strategema," itself borrowed from Greek, from strategein or stratagein "to be a general of an army" from strategos (Doric "stratagos") "general, commander," built on stratos "army, host, people" + agein "to lead." "Stratos" comes from the same Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to spread" that gave English "strew" and "straw." English "street" is also probably a cousin. In Latin, it emerged as struire "to pile up, build," the root found in English borrowings like "construct," "instruct," "instrument," and "obstruct."