Where does “signalman” come from?
Signalman derives from English signal and English man, with signal from Latin signum meaning mark or sign, and man from Proto-Indo-European men- meaning to think.
signalman (English): Somebody employed to operate the signals and...
Definitions
- Somebody employed to operate the signals and...
Ancestry of “signalman”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|
| 1 | English | signal | A sequence of states representing an encoded... |
| 2 | Old French | segnal | emblem; badge; signature; distinguishing mark... |
| 3 | Medieval Latin | signale | signal |
| 4 | Latin | signālis | — |
| 5 | Latin | signum | visible indication: sign, mark, signal; seal,... |
| 6 | Proto-Italic | seknom | — |
| 7 | Proto-Indo-European | sek- | to cut, cut off, sever |