System has the Greek upsilon showing as y in the middle, alongside syntax, myth and crypt. It is Greek systēma, "an organised whole, a whole compounded of parts," from syn-, "together," plus the root of histanai, "to cause to stand" — the same root as in stand, static and statue.
English took it in the 1610s, and its first meaning was the largest one available: the whole creation, the universe. It narrowed to a set of correlated principles or facts by the 1630s, and to the animal body considered as an organised whole by the 1680s — which is where the phrase get something out of your system comes from, a medical metaphor that has drifted into psychology. The prefix syn- is worth knowing on its own: it marks synonym, synthesis, symphony and sympathy, all of them Greek.
system (n.) 1610s, "the whole creation, the universe," from Late Latin systema "an arrangement, system," from Greek syst ē ma "organized whole, a whole compounded of parts," from stem of synistanai "to place together, organize, form in order," from syn- "together" (see syn- ) + root of histanai "cause to stand" (from PIE root *sta- "to stand, make or be firm"). The notion is "a combination or assemblage of parts or things forming or adjusted as a regular and connected whole." The meaning "set of correlated principles, facts, ideas, etc." is attested by 1630s. The meaning "animal body as an organized whole, sum of the vital processes in an organism" is recorded from 1680s; hence the figurative phrase get (something) out of (one's) system , attested by 1900. By 1680s as "group of bodies moving together in space, bound by laws of dynamics," as the sun and its planets. The computer sense of "group of related programs" is recorded from 1963. All systems go (1962) is from U.S. space program. The system "prevailing social order" is from 1806. also from 1610s
system came in through Greek, and its spelling follows that family's conventions.
How that family writes these sounds
| short /i/ in the middle | y, transliterating υ, where a native word would use imyth, system, syntax, crypt |
What gives it away on the page
| y as a vowel in the middle | Transliterates υ. Native words use i here.myth, system, physics, syntax, crypt |
Placing it without the spelling
| science, medicine, technical coinage | Greekphotograph, chemistry, system, pneumonia |