H. P. Grice on "a gesture (signal)"

ign (g silent), * signe, s. (Fr. signe, from t. signum = a mark, a token ; Sp. signo, seña, Port. signo, senha; Ital. segno.) I. Ordinary Language: 1. That by which anything is shown, made known, or o: ; that which furnishes evidence of the existence or approach of anything; a mark, a token, an indication. “The first faint signs of a c .” –Macaulay. Hist go house of public feeling 2. A motion, action, or gesture by which a thought is o a wish made known, or a command given; hence, one of the natural or conventional gestures by which intelligence is cominunicated or conversation carried on as by deaf-mutes. (Luke i. 62.) 3. Something intended or serving to indicate the existence, or preserve the memory, of a thing; a memorial, a monument, a token. "The fire devoured two hundred and fifty men, and they became a sign.”—wumbers xxvi. 10. 4. Any symbol or emblem which prefigures, floo, or represents an idea; hence, sometimes, a picture. "The holy o: or signs are not barely significative; but what they represent is as certainly delivered to us as the symbols themselves."—Brerewood. 5. A remarkable event, regarded as indicating the will of a deity; an omen, a prodigy. 6. Any remarkable event, transaction, or phenomenon, regarded as indicating the will of the deity, or as manifesting an interposition of the divine power for some special end; a wonder.

“If they will not hearken to the voice of the first so they will not believe the latter sign.”—rrodus v. 8.

* 7. A word regarded as the outward manifestation of thought. (Bacon.)

* 8. A mark of distinction, a cognizance.

“The ensign of Messiah blaz'd, Aloft by angels bone, his sign in heav'n." Multon: P. L., vi., 776.

9. That which, being external, represents or signifies something internal or spiritual. A term used in the formularies of the English Church in speaking of an ordinance considered with reference to that which it represents.

“An outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace given unto us."—church Catechism.

10. A lettered board, carved or painted figure, or the like, set conspicuously over or near a door, shop, &c., to indicate the occupation of the tenant of the premises, or to give notice of the articles sold or made lo a sign-board. (Shakesp.: 2 Henry II., iii. 2.

sign (g silent), * signe, v.t. & i. (Fr. signer, from Lat. sigmo, from signum = a mark, a sign (q.v.); Sp. signar; Ital. segmare.] A. Transitive: 1. To make a sign upon ; to mark witl, a sign or symbol. “We receive this child into the congregation of Christ's flock, and do sign him with the sign of the cross, in token that hereafter he shall not be ashamed to confess the faith of Christ crucified."—Book ov Common Prayer; order of Baptism. * 2. To express by a sign; to make known in a typical or symbolical manner, as uistinguished from speech; to signify. “The sacraments and symbols are just such as they seem ; but because they are inade to signs of a secret mystery, they receive the names of what the ulselves do sign."—Taylor. 3. To affix one's signature to a writing or deed; to mark and ratify by writing one's name; to subscribe in one's own handwriting. “Send the deed after me And I will sign it." Shakesp.: Merchant of renice, iv. 1. *4. To convey formally; to assign. * 5. To dress or array in insignia. “Here thy hunters stand

Signed in thy spoil."
Shakesp. : Julius Catsar, iii. 1.

One who paints sign

sig-nal, * sig'- s. & a. [Fr. signal = a signal, from Low Lat. signale, accus. of Lat. signalis = pertaining to a sign : signum = a sign; Sp. senal; Port. sinal, Ital. segmale.] A. As substantive : * 1. A sign, a token, an omen. “The weary sun hath made a golden set, And by the oright track of his fiery cor. Gives signal of a goodly day to-tuorrow. Shakesp.: Richard / 11., v. 3. 2. A means of communication by audible or visible signs between two distant points according to a preconcerted system. The means of signalling are numerous, as by motions of the hand or arm, the display of lights of various colours, the firing of guns, the sound of a bugle, rockets, semaphores, heliostats, flags, &c. “For God's sake, lords, give signal to the o Shakes, 3 Henry 1... ii. 2. B. As adj. : Distinguished or standing out from the rest ; eminent, notable, remarkable, conspicuous: as, a signal failure.

* sig-nal-mênt, s. [Fr. signalement.] 1. The act of signalling. 2. A description by means of peculiar or appropriate marks.

sig-na-ture, s. [Fr., from Lat. signatura, fen. sing. of fut. part. of sigmo = to sign (q.v.); Sp. signatura, Ital. signatura, segmatura.] I. Ordinary Language : * 1. A mark, sign, or stamp impressed. “The signature and staup of power divine." Cowper. Retirement, 54. 2. The name of a person written with his own hand, and intended to signify his approval or ratification of the writing which precedes. 3. An external mark or figure by which physiognomists loretend to discover the temper or character of persons. II. Technically: 1. Music (Pl.): The signs of chromatic alteration, sharps or flats, placed at the commencement of a composition, immediately after the clef, and affecting all notes of the same names as the degrees upon which they stand, unless their intluence is in any case counteracted by a contrary sign. (Grove.) * 2. Old Med. : A mark or sign on any substance, especially on a plant, supposed to indicate its use as a remedy. [*].] “The doctrine, that plants bear certain marks and signattures, indicative of their qualities or properties.” -Browne. Works (ed. Behn), i. 190 (Note J. 3. Print.: A distinguishing letter or number at the bottom of the first page of each sheet of a book, to indicate its order to the folder and binoler. Signatures are sometimes inserted at the bottoms of other pages, as the third, fifth, and seventh in octavo, the third in quarto, and so on of the other styles. The signature of the first sheet of matter is B, A being reserved for the title-page, index, contents, &c.; the next would C, and so on. The old Roman alphabet, which is destitute of J v w, is adopted, so that the twenty-fourth sheet will be A A or 2 A, according to the custom of the office. 4. Scots Law: A writing formerly prepared and presented by a writer to the signet, to the baron of exchequer as the ground of a royal grant to the person in whose name it was presented, which having, in the case of an original charter, the sign-manual of the sovereign, and, in other cases, the cachet appointed by the Act of Union for Scotland, attached to it, became the warrant of a conveyance under one or other of the seals, according to the nature of the subject or the object in view. * Doctrine of Signatures: * Old Med. : (See extract).

“Such notions as these were elaborated into the old medical theory known as the foctrine of Signatures, which supposed that plants and minerals indicated by their external characters the diseases for which nature had intended them as remedies. Thus the Euphrasia, or Eyebright, was, and is, supposed to be good for the eyes, on the strength of a black pupilf. spot in its corolla, the yellow turmeric was thought good for jaundice, and the blood-stone is prolably used to this day for stopping blood. Hy virtue of a similar association of ideas, the ginseng, which is still largely used in China, was also emiplayed by the Indians of North America, and in both countries its virtues were deduced from the shape of the root, which is to: to resentale the human body."—Tvior. Early Hist. Mankind (ed. 1878), pp. 122, 123.

sig-nét, s. [Fr., dimin. of signe = a sign (q.v.). A seal, especially the seal used for the seal-manual of a sovereign, as in England, one of the seals for the authentication of royal grants. In Scotland the signet is a seal by which royal warrants for the purpose of justice seem to have been at one time authenticated. Hence the title of “clerks to the signet” or “writers to the signet,” a class of legal practitioners in Edinburgh who formerly had "...' privileges, which are now nearly all abolished. They act generally as agents or attorneys in conducting causes before the Court of Session. “The Parliament laid claim to a Veto on the momination of the Judges, and assumed the power of stopping the signer, in other words, of suspending the whole administration of justice, till this claim should be allowed.”—Macaulay. Hist. Eng., ch. xiii. * Clerk of the signet: An officer in England continually in attendance upon the principal Secretary of State, who has the custody of the privy signet. t–ring, s. signet or private seal. “His signet-ring she bore Which oft in sport adorned her hand to fore." Byron - Corsair, ii. 12. * sig-nēt-éd, a. [Eng. signet; -ed.] Stamped,

sig-nif ongo. sig-nif-i -cy, s. | Fr. significance, from Lat. significantia, from significans = signifying, significant (q.v.); Sp. & Ital. significanza.] 1. The quality or state of being significant; meaning, import; that which is intended to be expressed. “If he declares he intends it for the honour of another, he takes away by his words the significance of his action."—Stillingsteet. 2. The real import of anything, as opposed to that which appears; the internal and true sense, as distinguished from the external and l'artial. 3. Expressiveness, impressiveness, force; the power or quality of impressing the mind. “As far as this duty will adluit of privacy, our Saviour hath enjoined it in terms of particular sigwificancy and force.”—4tterbury. * 4. Importance, moment, consequence.

“The third commandment would have been of very small significancy under the Gospel."—Secker: Ner. mons, vol. ii., ser, 30.

sig–nif—i-cant, a. & s. (Lat. significans, pr. lar. of significo = to signify (q.v.); Fr. sigmifiant.] A. As adjective: 1. Serving to signify something; having a meaning expressing or denoting something; having a signification. “Man . . . survey'd All creatures, with precision understood Their purport, uses, properties, assign d To each his name significant." Cowper: Pardley Oak. 2. Expressive or suggestive of something more than appears on the surface. “He was designated at the public offices and in the antechobers of the polace by the significant nickname of the Cardinal. —Atacaunay. Hist. Eng., ch. xiii. 3. Betokening something; representing or standing as a sign of something: thus, figures standing for numbers, as 1, 2, 3, &c., are called significant figures. “It was well said of Plotinus, that the stars were significant, but not efficient.”—Raleigh.