entry
semantic
/sɪˈmæntɪk/relating to meaning, significance, or interpretation
From Greek sēma (sign).
from PIE root *dheie- "to see, look" (source also of Sanskrit dhyati "he meditates;" see zen). The word has tended to...
from French sémantique, applied by Michel Bréal (1883) to the psychology of language
+1 more sourceWord Ancestry
from PIE root *dheie- "to see, look" (source also of Sanskrit dhyati "he meditates;" see zen). The word has tended to...
from French sémantique, applied by Michel Bréal (1883) to the psychology of language
+1 more sourceA Greek sēma could be a sign, an omen, a constellation—or even a grave, a final marker in the landscape. From that vivid cluster came sēmantikós, “giving signs,” which eventually supplied English with semantic. The history has a small fork in the road: English semantick appears as early as 1665 for interpreting signs, but the modern linguistic sense arrived independently through French sémantique around 1890, after Michel Bréal named the field in 1883. Bréal’s 1897 book helped spread the term into English, where it escaped the classroom and entered everyday arguments about whether a disagreement is “just semantic.” So semantic began with signs pointing outward; today it often asks what those signs mean inside our heads.
The Story
A Greek sēma could be a sign, an omen, a constellation—or even a grave, a final marker in the landscape. From that vivid cluster came sēmantikós, “giving signs,” which eventually supplied English with semantic. The history has a small fork in the road: English semantick appears as early as 1665 for interpreting signs, but the modern linguistic sense arrived independently through French sémantique around 1890, after Michel Bréal named the field in 1883. Bréal’s 1897 book helped spread the term into English, where it escaped the classroom and entered everyday arguments about whether a disagreement is “just semantic.” So semantic began with signs pointing outward; today it often asks what those signs mean inside our heads.
Kin & Kindred
From 'sēma'·sign, mark, token, or indication
Derived Terms
English words from this root
Sources
Urban Dictionary
Wiktionary