significance

Pronunciation

• IPA: /sɪɡˈnɪf.ɪ.kəns/^[1]

Etymology

It is Middle English significaunce, borrowed from Old French significance or directly borrowed from Latin significantia (“meaning, force, energy”),^[2][3][4] from significans, the present participle of significāre (“to mean, signify”) (see signify).^[2][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Meaning, as of an omen or dream: about 1400 in Etymonline, about 1450 in the OED.^[2][6] NODE says it first denoted an unstated meaning.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Importance or consequence is from 1725.^[2][6] Meaning or suggestiveness without a stated object is from 1814.^[6] In statistics, the degree to which a result is statistically significant is from 1888.^[6] The earlier word was signifiance, sign or portent (mid-13th century), and significancy was the more common form in the 17th and 18th centuries.^[2]

Timeline

• mid-13th century – signifiance.^[2]
• c. 1400 – meaning.^[2]
• 1725 – importance.^[2][6]
• 1888 – in statistics.^[6]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. The quality of being important; importance.
2. The meaning of something, especially a hidden one.
3. (statistics) The extent to which a result is unlikely to be due to chance.

Word family

• insignificance
• nonsignificance
• significs

Related words

• significant
• signify
• sign
• signal

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press