Did You Know?
In ancient Greek logic, "katēgorēma" referred to something that was affirmed or denied about the subject in a proposition. For instance, in "the paper is white," "whiteness" would be the "katēgorēma." Seventeenth-century logicians extended this concept, which they called "categorem," to cover the subject of the proposition as well. So, in the proposition "All men are mortal," "mortality" is a categorem and so is "man." But what about "all"? Words like "all" that signify quantity (as well as words that function as adverbs, prepositions, or conjunctions) are syncategoremata -- that is, they are words that have meaning in propositions only when used in conjunction "with" other words. ("Syn-" means "with.")
