consign

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French consigner,^[2][3][4][5] recorded in French from the 14th century,^[6] and directly borrowed from Latin cōnsignō (“to mark with a seal, attest, register”).^[7][8][6] In Anglo-Norman the verb is recorded from 1358, meaning to stamp something with a mark of quality.^[9] The Latin verb is formed from com- and signō (“to mark, seal”), from signum (“mark, sign”),^{[7][10][3][11]} the source of sign.^[2][7] In Medieval Latin it also meant to mark with the sign of the cross.^[12][6] The same Latin verb gave Italian consegnare.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

To attest, confirm or ratify, as with a sign or seal: about 1430, in Lydgate's Ballad of Our Lady.^[6] Barnhart dates it before 1449,^[2] and Etymonline to the mid-15th century, implied in consigned.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The early senses followed the Latin idea of a seal or sign: to attest something as if by a seal, and in church use, from 1533 and 1537, to mark with the sign of the cross at baptism or confirmation, and so to dedicate someone to God.^[6][4][8] These had died out by the early 18th century.^[6][4] The sense of handing over or delivering something is first recorded in 1528,^[2][7] and grew into committing someone or something to a state or fate (1632).^[6] The commercial sense of sending goods to an agent to be sold or kept followed in the 1650s.^[7] Shakespeare used the verb intransitively, in Henry IV, Part 2 (1600), for agreeing or putting one's seal to something;^[6][13] Johnson (1755) defined it as giving something formally into another's hands, with to or over to.^[14] The noun consignment is recorded from 1563, first as a sealing with a sign.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1430 – to attest, confirm or ratify, as with a seal (obsolete by 1849).^[6]
• 1528 – to hand over, deliver.^[2] Etymonline gives the 1520s.^[7]
• 1533 – to dedicate someone by the sign of the cross.^[6]
• 1537 – to mark with the sign of the cross; to confirm (obsolete by 1683).^[6]
• 1600 – intransitive, to agree, set one's seal to something, in Shakespeare.^[6]
• 1632 – to commit someone or something to a state or fate.^[6]
• 1650s – to send goods to someone to be sold or kept.^[7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To hand something over to another's care or charge; to entrust.^[13][3]
2. To put something away or get rid of it for good: She consigned the old letters to the fire.^[13][6]
3. To send someone to a place or condition, such as prison: The verdict consigned him to a cell for ten years.^[13][6]
4. To send or deliver goods to an agent or buyer, for sale or safekeeping.^[13][7]
5. (obsolete, 1537–1683) To mark with the sign of the cross, as at baptism or confirmation.^[6][4][3]
6. (obsolete, c. 1430–1849) To attest or confirm, as with a seal.^[6][4][3]
7. (obsolete) To agree or submit to something.^[13][6]

Word family

• consignable
• consignation
• consignor
• unconsigned
• preconsign
• reconsign
• consignee
• consignment

Related words

• sign

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
10. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
11. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
13. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
14. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.