Etymologically
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symbolism

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈsɪmbəˌlɪzəm/[1]

Etymology

It is formed from English symbol + -ism,[2][3][4][5][6] partly after French symbolisme and New Latin symbolismus as used in German.[2] In its use for the French literary movement it was taken from symbolisme itself, from symbole.[7][3] symbol itself is from Late Latin symbolum (“creed, token, mark”),[3][1] from Ancient Greek σύμβολον (súmbolon, “token, sign, watchword”),[3][1] from συμβάλλω (sumbállō, “to throw together”);[1] Etymonline explains the Greek noun as literally "that which is thrown together".[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The practice of representing things by symbols, or of giving a symbolic character to objects and acts: 1653, in J. Webster's Academiarum Examen.[2] Merriam-Webster dates the first known use to 1654[4] and Etymonline to the 1650s,[3] while the Shorter Oxford dates the word to the late 16th century.[6]

Semantic evolution

From the general practice of using symbols the word spread in the 19th century: from 1835 it meant the symbolic meaning given to natural objects or facts,[2] from 1864, in Ruskin, a set or system of written symbols.[2] The use of symbols in literature and art followed in 1866.[2][3] It was applied to a movement in French literature by 1892,[3] following symboliste, which Paul Verlaine had used in this sense in 1885 for poets who expressed ideas and feelings through indirect suggestion.[3] An early, now obsolete sense, recorded only between 1722 and 1753, first in Quincy's medical lexicon, had to do with consent or agreement.[2]

Timeline

  • 1653 – the practice of representing things by symbols.[2]
  • 1835 – a symbolic meaning attributed to natural objects.[2]
  • 1864 – a set or system of written symbols.[2]
  • 1866 – the use of symbols in literature or art.[2][3]
  • 1876 – plural, symbolic figures (rare).[2]
  • 1892 – a movement in French literature.[3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The use of symbols to represent ideas, qualities or things, or the giving of a symbolic meaning to objects and acts: the religious symbolism of the painting.[8][4][2]
  2. A system of symbols, or symbols taken together.[8][2]
  3. The symbolic meaning or quality of something.[8][2]
  4. (often capitalized) A late-19th-century movement in art and literature, begun by French poets, that sought to express ideas, feelings and mystical experience through symbols rather than direct description.[8][7][2]

Word family

  • sound symbolism

References

  1. ^ a b c d 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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  5. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  6. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  8. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins