syllable: [14] A syllable is etymologically a ‘gathering together’ of letters. The word comes from Anglo-Norman sillable, an alteration of Old French sillabe, which went back via Latin syllaba to Greek sullabé ‘gathering, gathering together of letters, syllable’. This was a derivative of sullambánein ‘gather together’, hence ‘spell together’, a compound verb formed from the prefix sun- ‘together’ and lambánein ‘take, grasp’. [syllable etymology, syllable origin, 英语词源]