signify

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English signifien, also signefien,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Old French signifier, with the Anglo-Norman forms senifier and singnifier,^[5][2][6] and partly directly borrowed from Latin significō (“to make signs, show, indicate, mean”).^[5][3] In Anglo-Norman the verb is recorded from 1113–19, meaning to mean, indicate, symbolize and make known.^[6] The Latin verb is formed from signum (“sign, mark”) and -ficō, from faciō (“to make, do”),^[4][7][8][9] the latter from Proto-Indo-European *dhe- (“to set, put”);^[4] Barnhart derives it through the adjective Late Latin significus, which is not recorded before Late Latin.^[3] The same Latin verb gave Spanish significar, Portuguese significar and Italian significare.^[5] See sign and -fy.^[7][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of an object or event, to be a sign or symbol of, to represent or mean: about 1275, in the Kentish Sermons.^[5][3] Etymonline gives the late 13th century, also for "to make known by signs, speech or action".^[4]

Semantic evolution

By the 14th century the verb was used of a person making something known (about 1325, in Robert of Gloucester's chronicle), of a word having a meaning (before 1382, in the Wycliffite Bible), and of events foreshadowing what is to come (about 1384).^[5] Chaucer used it eleven times and Gower seven, in the sense "to signify, symbolize".^[10] Senses "to notify a person" (1523–1611) and "to compare" (Malory) did not last.^[5] The intransitive sense "to matter, be of importance", mostly in negative or questioning sentences, is found from Shakespeare's Macbeth (before 1616) in the OED,^[5] but only from the 1660s in Etymonline;^[4] the OED notes that French has it only from 1671.^[5] Johnson (1755) gave its first sense as "to declare by some token or sign".^[11] In 20th-century African-American speech signify came to mean to boast or put on airs (1929),^[12] and to needle someone with mock-hostile banter (by 1932);^[4][12] and in literary and critical theory, from 1937, it is used of a text or sign producing meaning.^[5] In north Lincolnshire, so it does not signify clinched an order or argument, and in east Devon the verb meant to mark or designate.^[13]

Timeline

• c. 1275 – of a thing, to be a sign of, symbolize.^[5][3]
• c. 1325 – to make known, declare.^[5]
• before 1382 – of a word, to mean.^[5]
• c. 1384 – to portend, foreshadow.^[5]
• before 1616 – to matter, be of importance.^[5] Etymonline dates this sense to the 1660s.^[4]
• 1929 – in African-American slang, to boast or pretend.^[12]
• 1937 – of a text or sign, to produce meaning.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To be a sign of; to mean or indicate: A red sky at dawn signifies rain.^[8][14][5]
2. Of a word or phrase, to have as its meaning; to denote.^[5][8]
3. To make known by a sign, a word or an action: He signified his consent with a wave.^[14][8][5]
4. To portend or foreshadow.^[14][5]
5. (intransitive) To matter or be of importance, mostly in negative sentences.^[14][8][5]
6. (US, African-American slang) To boast, or to taunt someone with mock-hostile banter.^[12][4]

Word family

• signifiable
• signifier
• unsignified
• unsignifying

Related words

• sign
• signal
• significant
• significance
• signification
• -fy

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
7. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
12. ^ a b c d Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
13. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
14. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins