I think one needs to take a close and careful look at the lexical entries and the textual evidence to which they point, take note of usage and be careful about etymological relationships. That said, here's my take on these matters:Jason Hare wrote:So, I take it that στοῖχος and στίχος are synonyms.
What of στοιχῶ (-έω) and στείχω/στίχω?
Are they also synonyms?
Is there any important distinction between them?
Seems that originally στείχω would have basically been the causative - "to put in a line or row." While στοιχῶ was the action itself of being in or getting into line.
Did they merge together? Or, am I looking at this entirely wrong?
Thanks.
The root is στειχ/στοιχ/στιχ; the fundamental sense seems to be something like 'sequential positioning'
The basic verb is στείχω (στίχω being a variant form of στείχω), meaning "come/go straight (forward/back).
The basic noun is στοῖχος, meaning "sequence of items in a row"
The noun στίχος is akin to the preceding but generally indicates a line or row of sequential units: a file of soldiers, a line of verse
The noun στοιχεῖον means basically "point on a line, unit in a series"
The verb στοιχέω is denominative from στοῖχος and means "align to/with" (ordinarily with a dative).