Etymologically
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signal

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 15 October 2026 at 21:15. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ˈsɪɡ.nəl/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English signal,[2][3] borrowed from Old French signal (“seal, imprint, sign, mark”), earlier seignal,[4][2] from Medieval Latin signāle,[4][2] the neuter of Late Latin signālis “used as a sign”,[4][5] from Latin signum (“identifying mark, sign”),[4][2] the source of sign.[4][2] The adjective, “notable”, is from French signalé, the past participle of signaler “to distinguish”,[4][2][3] through Italian segnalato.[6][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

A visible sign, indication: about 1380, in Chaucer's House of Fame, according to Barnhart;[2] about 1384 in the OED, a badge or symbol, a sense now obsolete.[8][4]

Semantic evolution

In late Middle English it was also a supernatural act of God and a device on a banner.[4] A sign agreed on for concerted action, as an order to begin or stop, is from the 1590s,[4] first in Shakespeare's Richard II (1593).[2][8] A sign given to convey information or a warning is from 1598.[8] The modulation of an electric current to transmit messages is from 1855,[4][8] later of electromagnetic waves, hence in radio broadcasting (1923).[4] The railway signalman is by 1840.[4] The adjective, “striking, notable”, as in a signal achievement, is from 1641 in Barnhart and the OED,[2][8] the 1640s in Etymonline.[4] The verb, “to make signals to”, is from 1805;[4][2] the earlier verb was signalize.[4]

Timeline

  • c. 1380 – a visible sign.[2]
  • 1593 – a sign for concerted action.[2][8]
  • 1641 – adjective, notable.[2][8]
  • 1805 – verb.[4][2]
  • 1840 – signalman.[4]
  • 1855 – an electric signal.[4][8]
  • 1923 – a broadcast signal.[4]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A gesture, light, sound or other sign used to communicate a message or warning.
  2. Something that prompts action: the signal to attack.
  3. An electrical impulse or radio wave that transmits information, as for radio or television.
  4. A device, as on a railway, that shows whether the way is clear.

Verb

  1. To make a signal to; to communicate by signals.
  2. To be a sign of; to indicate.

Adjective

  1. Notably out of the ordinary: a signal achievement.

Word family

  • signaler
  • signalman
  • presignal
  • signalment
  • unsignaled
  • unsignalled
  • resignal

References

  1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ a b Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  6. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press