English
symbolic
Symbolic may come from French symbolique.
- Frenchc. 1600–presentsymboliqueuncertain
- Englishearliest quotation 2013symbolic
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- Frenchc. 1600–presentsymboliqueuncertain
- Englishearliest quotation 2013symbolic
Earliest quotation: 2013, Joris Luyendijk, Our banks are out of control: “Seeing the British establishment struggle with the financial sector…”
Formed from symbol + -ic
Proto-Indo-European *gʷelH- ‘to throw, reach, pierce’
…
Ancient Greek σῠμβάλλω
Ancient Greek σύμβολον ‘a sign by which one infers something’
Latin symbolum ‘symbol, token’
French symbole
English symbol
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *gʷelH- ‘to hit by throwing’
ball, quail, quill, quell, obelisk, pul, 66 more
through Proto-Hellenic *gʷəlnō
through Ancient Greek βάλλω ‘to throw, put’
problem, devil, emblem, parable, metabolic, hyperbolic, parabolic, embolism, anabolic, metabolize, hyperbola, 34 more
Today it means
adj Pertaining to a symbol.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / French symbolique / symbolic