SYNCRETISM [FIRST EDITION]. The term syncretism usually refers to connections of a special kind between languages, cultures, or religions. This term is most frequently used in the history of religions, where a special effort has been made to give it a more precise meaning.

History and Usefulness of the Concept

The term sugkrētismos first occurs in Plutarch (Moralia 490ab). It was probably based on sugkrētos (Ionian form of sugkratos, "mixed together") and was explained by popular etymology or by Plutarch himself as referring to the behavior of the Cretans who, despite the discord habitual among them, closed ranks when an external enemy attacked them. Early interpretations, which reversed the relation between coinage and meaning, may be left aside. Discussions of the term in the Suda (4.451), the Etymologicum magnum (732.54f.), and Erasmus's Adagia (27) and Epistolae (3.539) are based on Plutarch's explanation, which was thus...