nomothetic

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Nomothetic is often contrasted with "idiographic," a word meaning "relating to or dealing with something concrete, individual, or unique." Where "idiographic" points to the specific and unique, "nomothetic" points to the general and consistent. The immediate Greek parent of nomothetic is a word meaning "of legislation"; the word has its roots in nomos, meaning "law," and -thetēs, meaning "one who establishes." "Nomos" has played a part in the histories of words as varied as "metronome," "autonomous," and "Deuteronomy." The English contributions of "-thetēs" are meager ("nomothetic" is the only one in our Collegiate dictionary), but "-thetēs" itself comes from tithenai, meaning "to put," and "tithenai" is the ancestor of many common words ending in "thesis"-"hypothesis," "parenthesis," "prosthesis," "synthesis," and "thesis" itself-as well as "theme," "epithet," and "apothecary."