FromLatinsyncretismus, fromAncient Greekσυγκρητισμός(sunkrētismós,“federation of Cretan cities”), fromσυγκρητίζω(sunkrētízō,“to unite against a common enemy”), fromσύν(sún,“together”) (see Englishsyn-) +Κρῆτες(Krêtes,“Cretans”). Bysurface analysis,syn- +Crete +-ism (“Crete joining together”).
syncretism (countable anduncountable,pluralsyncretisms)
- (chiefly religion) Thereconciliation orfusion ofdifferentsystems orbeliefs(religious, cultural, or otherwise cosmologic or ontologic).
- Synonym:syncresis(rare, often proscribed)
1876 [1840], “Second Memoir”, inBenjamin R. Tucker, transl.,What is Property?, translation ofQu'est-ce que la propriété ? byPierre-Joseph Proudhon:Having thus established his trinity of hypotheses, M. Lamennais deduces therefrom, by a badly connected chain of analogies, his whole philosophy. And it is here especially that we notice thesyncretism which is peculiar to him. The theory of M. Lamennais embraces all systems, and supports all opinions.
1995, Clinton E. Arnold,The Colossian Syncretism: The Interface Between Christianity and Folk Belief at Colossae,J.C.B. Mohr (Paul SieBeck),page238:It provides a more natural explanation of the Colossiansyncretism as stemming from local religious impulses that continued to wield a powerful draw on people converted to Christianity from the local Jewish communities and pagan cults.[…]The kind ofsyncretism we find at Colossae was not unique to that city or region.
2006, Gailyn Van Rheenen, “1:Syncretism and Contextualization: The Church on a Journey Defining Itself”, in Gailyn Van Rheenen, editor,Contextualization andSyncretism: Navigating Cultural Currents, Evangelical Missiological Society,page 7:Kraft's functional view of Anthropology eventually leads tosyncretism because God is understood as working within a modern, humanistic paradigm.
2010, Marguerite Fernández Olmos, Lizabeth Paravisini-Gebert, “Creole Religions of the Caribbean”, in Claudio Iván Remeseira, editor,Hispanic New York: A Sourcebook,Columbia University Press,page222:The strategies of religioussyncretism—the active transformation through renegotiation, reorganization, and redefinition of clashing belief systems—are consistent with the creolization process.
- (linguistics) The fusion of differentinflexional forms.
1993, Robert Coleman, “Patterns ofSyncretism in Indo-European”, in Henk Aertsen, Robert J. Jeffers, editors,Historical Linguistics 1989: Papers from the 9th International Conference,John Benjamins Publishing Company,page111:In this paper a distinction is assumed between fullsyncretism, which affects whole morphemes, and partialsyncretism, which affects only some case allomorphs, and also betweensyncretism proper and mere loss of a case morpheme.
2004, Ronald F. Feldstein, “On the Structure ofSyncretism in Romanian Conjugation”, in Julie Auger, J. Clancy Clements, Barbara Vance, editors,Contemporary Approaches to Romance Linguistics,John Benjamins Publishing Company,page177:Romanian conjugation displays several cases ofsyncretism, in which two paradigmatic slots share the same grammaticaldesinence.[…]On the other hand, thesyncretisms of the imperfect and subjunctive are not phonologically conditioned and, as such, apply to every verb without exception.
2005, Michael Cysouw, “Chapter 3:Syncretisms involving clusivity”, in Elena Filimonova, editor,Clusivity: Typology and Case Studies of Inclusive-exclusive Distinction,John Benjamins Publishing Company,page73:In this chapter, I will investigate whether they deserve this name by looking atsyncretisms between clusivity and other person markers.
fusion of different systems or beliefs
fusion of different inflexional forms
Moral syncretism on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
Category:Syncretism on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons