English
significance
Significance comes from Latin significantia ‘meaning, signification’, from significō ‘point out’, and ultimately from Proto-Italic *segnom ‘sign’.
- Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*segnom‘sign’reconstructed
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEsignum‘token, sign’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEsignificō‘point out’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEsignificāns‘showing, expressing, signifying, pointing out’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEsignificantia‘meaning, signification’
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400significance
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600same form
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500significaunce‘the meaning or significance of an omen’
- Englishearliest quotation 1924significance
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*segnom‘sign’reconstructed
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEsignum‘token, sign’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEsignificō‘point out’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEsignificāns‘showing, expressing, signifying, pointing out’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEsignificantia‘meaning, signification’
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400significance
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600same form
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500significaunce‘the meaning or significance of an omen’
- Englishearliest quotation 1924significance
Earliest quotation: 1924, George Henry Chase, Chandler Rathfon Post: “As the nudities and mythologies of the sixteenth century…”
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *sek- ‘to cut’
saw, sex, risk, section, ship, sexual, segment, sack, insect, sawyer, scarlet, designation, sax, het, shingle, dissect, sickle, scythe, seg, sedge, sich, desiccation, brassica, assignation, desiccant, 52 more
through Proto-Italic *segnom ‘sign’
design, resign, sealing, assign, consign, 18 more
through Latin signum ‘token, sign’
seal, signal, ensign, insignia, signet, sain, sigil, 12 more
Today it means
noun The extent to which something matters; importance
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Proto-Italic *segnom / significance