consigno

Forms

cōnsignō (present infinitive cōnsignāre, perfect active cōnsignāvī, supine cōnsignātum); first conjugation^[1] The spelling cosign- appears in an inscription.^[2]

Etymology

It is from Latin con- + signō (“to mark, seal”).^[2][3][1] signō is made from signum (“mark, sign”), which de Vaan traces to Proto-Italic *sekno- (“statue, sign”) and Proto-Indo-European *sek(h2)-no- (“cut”), from the root of secō (“to cut”): a sign was first something cut or carved out.^[4] Cognate with Oscan segúnú (“statues”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and the TLL record it from Plautus on.^[4][3] In the Trinummus a speaker says he will seal the letters: epistulas … consignabo.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Its first sense is to put a seal on a document: Plautus has sealed tablets, Cicero tablets sealed with the seals of noblemen, and Suetonius the tablets of a marriage contract.^[2][3][5] In Livy it is to record something in a sealed document, as when everything was sealed and sent to the senate.^[2] From this it came to mean placing on record in any way and so attesting or vouching for: Cicero speaks of antiquity attested and recorded in monuments, and of judgements of the senate recorded in the public records of the Roman people.^[5] Cicero also uses it for fixing something precisely, as the motion of time to be marked by the stars, and of notions stamped, as it were, on minds.^[2][5] Gellius uses it of making a cause known, and has the adverb consignātē, distinctly.^[5]

The TLL notes that Christian writers were fond of the word.^[3] From Tertullian on it means to seal a person with a sacrament, to confirm with the chrism, to consecrate, and to mark with the sign of the cross.^[3] Medieval Latin keeps these senses beside sealing and signing charters, and also uses it for assigning or handing over property.^[6] Church Latin glosses it to sign, record, seal, certify.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus, of sealing letters and tablets.^[2][3][8]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero, of recording in public registers and of attesting.^[2][5][8]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy, of documents sealed and sent to the senate.^[2][8]
• c. 160–220 AD – Tertullian, of one initiated and sealed in the Christian mysteries.^[3][8]
• mid-15th century – English consign, first “to ratify by a seal”, comes partly from it and partly through French.^[9]

Meanings

Verb

1. To affix a seal to, to seal (a document).^[2][5][1]
2. To record in a sealed document; to place on record, register, note down.^[2][5][1]
3. To attest, certify, vouch for.^[5][1][7]
4. To indicate precisely, establish.^[2][5]
5. (Ecclesiastical Latin) To seal with a sacrament, confirm with the chrism; to mark with the sign of the cross.^[3][6]
6. (Medieval Latin) To assign, hand over (property).^[6]

Word family

• cōnsignātiō
• reconsigno

Related words

• signum
• obsignō
• English consign

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
8. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
9. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com