BioConcepts

synergyσυνεργία (gr.); synergia (lat.); synergie (fr.); Synergie (ger.)

• 1) The action of working together, cooperating.  
  category reciprocity see also synergetics

  -4th century BC

  [Τελειοῦται δ’ἐν τοῖς ᾠοῖς τὰ ζῷα θᾶττον ἐν ταῖς ἀλεειναῖς ἡμέραις·συνεργάζεται γὰρ ἡ ὥρα·καὶ γὰρ ἡ πέψις θερμότητός ἐστιν. (The young is perfected within the egg more quickly in sunshiny weather, the season aiding in the work, for concoction is a kind of heat; transl. A. Platt)

  Aristotle, De generatione animalium 753a18.]

  -3rd century BC

  πίονα δὲ ἄμφω τυγχάνει ὄντα πάντων ἀεί, ἀρχός τε καὶ ὄμματα·διὰ μὲν οὖν τὴν συνεργίαν κοινωνεῖ τῆς θερμασίας, διὰ δὲ ταύτην λεπτύνεται καὶ συναποκρίνεται πολὺ εἰς τὸ σπέρμα [Beide Teile aber, die Augen und das Gesäß pflegen stets fett bei allen (Menschen) zu sein. Wegen ihres Zusammenwirkens haben sie daher auch gemeinsam an der Wärme teil, durch diese aber werden (die beiden Teile) verdünnt und es wird viel (von ihnen) in den Samen abgeschieden.]

  Pseudo-Aristotle (3rd cent. BC). ΟΣΑ ΠΕΡΙ ΑΦΡΟΔΙΣΙΑ [Was den Geschlechtsverkehr betrifft], in: Problemata physica 876b14-17 (transl. by H. Flashar, Berlin 1962).

  c. 180

  γεγόναμεν γὰρ πρὸς συνεργίαν ὡς πόδες, ὡς χεῖρες, ὡς βλέφαρα, ὡς οἱ στοῖχοι τῶν ἄνω καὶ τῶν κάτω ὀδόντων [we are made for co-operation, like feet, like hands, like eyelids, like the rows of the upper and lower teeth]

  Marcus Aurelius (c. 180). Τὰ εἰς ἑαυτόν (The Meditations): II, 1 (Engl. tranl. M. Hammond 2006).
  

  c. 200

  ἢ γέγονεν ἔκ τινος χρόνου καὶ συνῆλθεν εἰς ταὐτὸν ἅπαντα, ἵνα ἐκ συνεργείας γένηται τὰ συγκρίματα

  Galenus (c. 200). ΟΤΙ ΑΙ ΠΟΙΟΤΗΤΕΣ ΑΣΩΜΑΤΟΙ [Quod qualitates incorporeae sint], in: Opera omnia, ed. C.G. Kühn, vol. 19: 472, 5-7.

• 2) Synergism, i.e. the doctrine that the human will co-operates with Divine grace in the work of regeneration. (OED 2013)  
  category reciprocity

  1524

  gratiae συνεργεῖν

  Erasmus of Rotterdam (1524). De libero arbitrio: IV, 7.

  1558

  tribuimus aliquam Synergiam voluntati nostræ

  Pfeffinger, J. (1558). Utiles Disputationes de praecipuis capitibus doctrinae christianae: 59v (xxxiiii).

  1654

  Victorin Strigelle [Viktor Strigel, 1524-1569] autheur de l’heresie nommée Synergie, ou des forces humaines en la conversion de l’homme qui n’est pas encore regeneré par le baptesme

  Henri de Sponde (1654). Abrégé des Annales sacrées et ecclésiastiques, vol. 3: 308.

  1660

  some Lutherans […] speak only of such a Synergie, or co-operation, as makes men differ from a sensleß stock, or liveleß statua, in reference to the great work of his own conversion

  Heylyn, P. (1660). Historia quinqu-articularis: or, A declaration of the judgement of the Western Churches, and more particularly of the Church of England: 9 (I, x).

• 3) The cooperation of medical treatment and natural healing in the cure of a disease.  
  category reciprocity

  1695

  ΣΥΝΕRGΙΑΝ vocant Medici illam operationem in Corpore humano vivo, agrotante, quâ Natura ad Medicamenta concurrit; ENERGIAN dicere debent, quando sine Medico curat ipsamet morbos. […] ENERGIÆ & SYNERGIÆ Vitali

  Stahl, G.E. (1695). Propempticon inaugurale De synergeia naturæ in medendo: [2]; [5].

• 4) Combined or correlated action of a group of bodily organs (as nerve-centres, muscles, etc.). (OED 2013)  
  category self-organization

  1778

  Je désigne par ce mot de synergie, un concours d’action des forces de divers organes qui co-opèrent avec un organe déterminé, pour constituer par leur ordre d’harmonie ou de succession la forme générique d’une affection particulière dont le siège principal est supposé dans cet organe, en santé ou en maladie: comme, par exemple, la forme générique de l’excrétion, ou de l’inflammation.

  Barthez, P.-J. (1778). Nouveaux éléments de la science de l’homme: 146-7.

  1785

  Das Merkwürdigste in dem Spiel dieser Begierde ist die Synergie der Kräfte, das gemeinschaftliche Erwachen aller, auch wo sie die Seele zu einem Dienste ausruft, den nur eine derselben ihr leisten kann.

  Engel, J.J. (1785). Ideen zu einer Mimik, vol. 1, 175-6.

  1821

  A similar synergy (co-operation), for the fulfilment of an especial function, sometimes exists in disease; and hence some morbid actions may be classed amongst the synergies. This distinction of synergies and sympathies, is not a mere scholastic prolusion: it is qualified to establish some important practical indications

  Anonymus (1821). [Rev. Bégin, L.J. (1821). Principes généraux de physiologie-pathologique, coordonnés d’après la doctrine de M. Broussais]. The London Medical and Physical Journal 45, 237-51: 246.

  1827

  I would object to the term synergy, which some have proposed to borrow from the French, to express the same meaning [as sympathy]; because the French author who has chiefly used the word (Barthez), has not applied it to all the phenomena which are commonly designated as sympathetic actions, but only to a part of these. What are commonly called sympathetic actions are manifestly divisible into two clases, according as the actions excited are in the organs of organic or animal life.

  Alison, W.P. (1827). Observations on the physiological principle of sympathy, chiefly in reference to the peculiar doctrines of Mr Charles Bell. Edinburgh Journal of Medical Science 3, 188-91: 188.

  1867

  the synergy of organs in producing mental phenomena

  Lewes, G.H. (1867). The History of Philosophy, 3rd ed., vol. II: 419.

• 5) The phenomenon of cooperation in natural and social systems.  
  category reciprocity see also synergetics

  1903

  That there is a universal principle, operating in every department of nature and at every stage in evolution, which is conservative, creative, and constructive, has been evident to me for many years […]. I have at last fixed upon the word synergy as the term best adapted to express its twofold character of energy and mutuality, or the systematic and organic working together of the antithetical forces of nature.

  Ward, L.F. (1903). Pure Sociology. A Treatise on the Origin and Spontaneous Development of Society: 171.