English
presignify
Presignify comes from Latin praesignificare.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEpraesignificare
- Englishearliest quotation 1646presignify
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEpraesignificare
- Englishearliest quotation 1646presignify
Earliest quotation: 1646, Sir Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica: “That owls and ravens are ominous appearers, and presignifying…”
A compound of prae ‘before’ + significare ‘to signify’
Proto-Indo-European *per- ‘before’
Proto-Indo-European *préh₂i ‘before, in front’
Proto-Italic *prai ‘before’
Latin prae ‘before’
Proto-Indo-European *sek- ‘to cut’
Proto-Italic *segnom ‘sign’
Latin signum ‘token, sign’
Latin significō ‘to signify’
Every English word from Latin praesignificare
Today it means
verb To intimate or signify beforehand; to presage.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Latin praesignificare / presignify