signo

Forms

signo m (plural signos)^[1] Old Spanish texts write signo, ssigno, sygno, singno and, without the ⟨g⟩, sino and synos.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin signum (“mark, sign, token”), a learned word that Spanish took from Latin in the 13th century.^[3][4][1][5] The same Latin word lives on in popular form in seña, from the plural signa, which is recorded from the Cid on, and Spanish also has the semi-learned doublet sino “fate”.^[3][6] Old Spanish did not keep the learned and the semi-learned form apart in writing, and the spelling did not settle the difference until late.^[3]

The popular outcomes of the Latin word include Italian segno, Romanian semn, French seing, Catalan senya and Portuguese senha.^[7][1]

De Vaan traces the Latin word to Proto-Italic *sekno- (“statue, sign”) and Proto-Indo-European *sek-no- (“cut”), beside secō (“to cut”), so that the word first meant “something cut or carved out” and then “sign”.^[8] Wiktionary gives this root or *sekʷ- (“to follow”) as the source,^[1] and Gómez de Silva prefers the second, explaining the word as a sign that one is to follow.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the word from Gonzalo de Berceo, and the BDELC and Segura Munguía from 1220–50.^[3][6] In Berceo's Del sacrificio de la misa (1228–46, in an early 14th-century copy) it means “symbol, token”: la tórtora es signo de la su castidad “the turtledove is a sign of His chastity”.^[10] Charters of the same century use it for the notary's mark that authenticates a document: pusi mio signo “I set my sign”.^[10]

Semantic evolution

The astrological sense is old: the Semejanza del mundo (c. 1223) says that Cancer has a sign in the sky, and the Alfonsine Libro del acedrex of 1283 uses signo for a constellation.^[10][3] From “the constellation under which one is born” came “destiny”, a sense found in Juan Ruiz and in the Celestina (c. 1490): quando el signo nos buscan en la mano “when they read our fate in our hand”.^[3][11] The Diccionario de Autoridades gave signo as “sign, token”, as a term of philosophy and as “fate”, noting that people commonly said sino in that last sense.^[11]

The Academy's dictionaries of the 19th century added the notary's sign, the twelve signs of the zodiac and the signs of musical notation; the 1884 edition gave the Latin etymology, and Alemany's dictionary of 1917 has the signs of writing and of mathematics.^{[12][13][14][15]} Medicine uses the word for an objective manifestation of a disease, as against a symptom.^[16] The current dictionary also has the signs of the sign language of deaf people, and the signo lingüístico of linguistics, the unit of a signifier and a signified.^[4]

Timeline

• 1196 – first record in the sense “signature”, according to the DTME.^[16]
• 1220–50 – first record in Berceo, according to Corominas.^[3][6]
• c. 1223 – the Semejanza del mundo uses it for a sign of the zodiac.^[10]
• 1283 – the Libro del acedrex of Alfonso X uses signo for a constellation.^[3]
• c. 1490 – the Celestina has the sense “fate”.^[3][11]
• 1513 – Nebrija gives Latin signum and sigillum for signo “sign”.^[17]
• 1519 – first record in the Americas, a notary's sign in Puerto Rico, written sino.^[18]
• 1817 – the Academy's dictionary adds the notary's sign, the zodiac and the musical sense.^[12]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology Del lat. signum.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. A thing, phenomenon or act that stands for or replaces another, by nature or by convention; a sign or symbol.^[4][1]
2. An indication or token of something: Aquel silencio fue signo de su enfado.^[4][19]
3. A mark or character used in writing and printing.^[4]
4. A sign made as a blessing, as in the Mass.^[4]
5. The figure that a notary adds to his or her signature.^[4]
6. fate, destiny (sino).^[4]
7. (astrology) Each of the twelve equal parts of the zodiac; a sign of the zodiac.^[4][1]
8. (mathematics) A sign used in calculation to show the nature of quantities and the operations to be done with them.^[4]
9. (music) A sign used in writing music, especially the one that shows the natural pitch of a note.^[4]
10. (Spain) A sign of sign language, made with one or both hands.^[4]
11. (medicine) An objective manifestation of a disease that an observer can see.^[16]

Related words

• seña
• señal
• sino
• signar
• significar
• Latin signum
• Italian segno

Usage notes

Signo lingüístico is the linguistic sign, made up of a significante and a significado;^[1] signo negativo is the minus sign.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. signo
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 209
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. signo
5. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. signo
6. ^ a b c Segura Munguía, Santiago (2014), Lexicón etimológico y semántico del latín y de las voces actuales que proceden de raíces latinas o griegas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 761
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. s.v. signo
10. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. signo
11. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, 112
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 802
13. ^ Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 667
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 976
15. ^ Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 1514
16. ^ a b c Real Academia Nacional de Medicina (2011), Diccionario de términos médicos, Madrid: Editorial Médica Panamericana; online at https://dtme.ranm.es, p. s.v. signo
17. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 416
18. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. signo
19. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. signo