"Stop for a second, if you have bandwidth, because there's a word we'd like to flag: synergy. It sounds like it means something good, but it's unclear exactly what. It's something your bosses might say. There's pretty much a 0% chance you've said "synergy" in casual conversation. "It's the ultimate buzzword. It's the one that everybody thinks of when they think of business jargon," says Erica Brozovsky, a sociolinguist who hosts the PBS series Otherwords."
"Synergy comes from Greek: syn, a prefix for "together," and ergon, meaning "work." These days, according to Merriam-Webster, it can refer to "combined action or operation" or, ahem, "a mutually advantageous conjunction or compatibility of distinct business participants or elements (such as resources or efforts)." In many contexts, it means the whole of something being greater than the sum of its parts. For example, two people working together can achieve more than two people working separately."
Synergy derives from Greek syn (together) and ergon (work). Merriam-Webster defines synergy as combined action or operation and a mutually advantageous conjunction of distinct business participants or elements. The term often conveys that the whole exceeds the sum of its parts, exemplified by collaboration producing greater results than isolated efforts. Early uses appear in religious contexts, notably New Testament books written in Greek that use synergoi, translated as 'fellow workers' or 'laborers together.' In the 1600s, the term featured in Church of England pamphlet disputes with Presbyterians and Puritans over whether salvation stems from divine grace or human will.
Read at www.npr.org
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