consignment

Etymology

It is formed from English consign + -ment.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} The verb goes back to Middle English consignen (“to certify by seal”),^[7] from French consigner and directly from Latin cōnsignō (“to seal, register; to mark with a sign”),^[3][7][4] formed from com- and signō (“to mark, sign”), from signum (“mark, sign”).^[3][7][2] In the first sense the noun followed the earlier consignation, from the 1530s, from Medieval Latin consignatio.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Sealing or dedicating with a sign: 1563, in J. Man's translation of Musculus's Common Places of Christian religion.^[2] Etymonline also dates the word to the 1560s, as the act of sealing with a sign.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The early religious sense of sealing with a sign is now rare.^[4][2] In law the word briefly meant hypothecation (1622).^[2] The general sense of handing over or delivering is recorded from before 1668, in Davenant,^[2][6] and the commercial sense, the sending of goods or a cargo to an agent for sale, from 1709, in Steele's Tatler;^[2] Etymonline dates these to the 1660s and to about 1700.^[3] The concrete sense, a quantity of goods so sent, followed in 1723, in Defoe's Colonel Jack.^[2][3] Johnson (1755) gave the act of consigning and "the writing by which any thing is consigned", a sense later dictionaries copied from him.^[8][2] In 1837 Carlyle used it for confinement within bounds as a punishment, after French consigne.^[2] The attributive use, of goods sent on consignment, as in consignment sale, is recorded from 1913.^[6]

Timeline

• 1563 – sealing or dedicating with a sign.^[2][3]
• 1622 – in law, hypothecation (obsolete).^[2]
• before 1668 – handing over, delivery, committal.^[2][6]
• 1709 – the sending of goods to an agent for sale.^[2]
• 1723 – a quantity of goods consigned.^[2][3]
• 1837 – confinement within bounds as a punishment.^[2]
• 1913 – attributive, of goods sent on consignment.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act of consigning: handing something over, or sending goods to someone, especially to an agent for sale: the consignment of the crates to a dealer.^[9][6][7][2]
2. A quantity of goods sent in one shipment: The second consignment of medicine arrived today.^[9][6][7]
3. on consignment: on the terms that the goods are paid for only once they are sold, and unsold goods may be returned.^[7][9][6]
4. (rare) Sealing or dedicating with a sign.^[4][2]

Adjective

1. Of, relating to or received as goods on consignment: a consignment store.^[6]

Word family

• nonconsignment

Related words

• consignee
• consignor
• consign
• consignation
• sign

Usage notes

In West Indian slang, consignment is cheating on one's partner, a sense recorded in a 1995 dancehall dictionary.^[10]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c d e f The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
9. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
10. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com