Etymologically
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insigno

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Forms

īnsignō (present infinitive īnsignāre, perfect active īnsignāvī, supine īnsignātum); first conjugation[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin in-1 + signō (“to mark”), beside īnsigniō.[2][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in the scholia on Juvenal, and in the glossaries, which render it with the Greek for “engrave”.[2][3][4]

Semantic evolution

In Late Latin it meant to mark or distinguish: Junilius has a garment whose stones were engraved with the names of the twelve tribes, and the Latin translation of Theodore of Mopsuestia's commentary on the Psalms uses it for marking things with names and doorposts marked with blood.[2]

Medieval writers used it for showing or proving something, sealing a charter, listing people by name, and distinguishing or adorning;[5] Wiktionary also gives “instruct”.[1] The Romance languages continue it in the sense “teach”: French enseigner, Italian insegnare, Spanish enseñar and Portuguese ensinar.[2]

Timeline

  • c. 400 AD – The scholia on Juvenal use it.[2][4]
  • 1278 – A Carinthian charter uses it for names listed at the end of a letter.[5]

Meanings

Verb

  1. (Late Latin) To engrave; to mark, distinguish.[2][3][1]
  2. (Medieval Latin) To show, indicate, prove.[5][1]
  3. (Medieval Latin) To seal (a charter).[5]
  4. (Medieval Latin) To list, record by name.[5]
  5. (Medieval Latin) To adorn, distinguish.[5]
  6. (Medieval Latin) To instruct.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  3. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  5. ^ a b c d e f Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften