siglum

English

WOTD – 14 January 2024

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Late Latin siglum (“abbreviation”), possibly a contracted form of:

• sigillum (“figurine, statuette; seal”), from signum (“figure, statue; seal, signet; mark, sign”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *sek- (“to cut, sever; to cut off”) or *sekʷ- (“to follow”)) + -ulum (diminutive suffix); or
• singulum, a singular form of singulus (“apiece; every; single”, adjective), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *sem- (“one; together”).

The plural form sigla is a learned borrowing from Late Latin sigla.

Pronunciation

• Singular:
  • (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /ˈsɪɡləm/

  • Audio (Southern England)

    (file)

  • Hyphenation: sig‧lum
• Plural:
  • (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /ˈsɪɡlə/
  • Hyphenation: sig‧la

Noun

siglum (plural sigla)

1. A letter or other symbol that stands for a name or word; specifically, one used in a modern literary work to refer to an early version of a text.
2. (figurative) A thing which represents something else; a sign, a symbol.
   • 1963, Vladimir Nabokov, chapter 2, in Michael Scammell, Vladimir Nabokov, transl., The Gift, London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson […], →OCLC, page 86:

     [H]e emerged onto a garden terrace where on the soft red sand one could make out the sigla of a summer day: the imprints of a dog's paws, the beaded tracks of a wagtail, the Dunlop stripe left by Tanya's bicycle, […]

Hyponyms

• chrismon

Derived terms

• siglarian

Translations

letter or other symbol that stands for a name or word

• Finnish: lyhennysmerkki
• German: Sigel (de) n, Kürzel (de) n
• Macedonian: си́гла f (sígla), знак m (znak)

thing which represents something else — see sign,‎ symbol

Further reading

• scribal abbreviation on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• “siglum, n.”, in Collins English Dictionary.
• “siglum”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Anagrams

• mugils

Latin

Etymology

Possibly a contracted form of sigillum or singulum.

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈsi.ɡlum/, [ˈs̠ɪɡɫ̪ʊ̃ˑ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈsi.ɡlum/, [ˈsiːɡlum]

Noun

siglum n (genitive siglī); second declension

1. (Late Latin) abbreviation

Declension

Second-declension noun (neuter).

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	siglum	sigla
Genitive	siglī	siglōrum
Dative	siglō	siglīs
Accusative	siglum	sigla
Ablative	siglō	siglīs
Vocative	siglum	sigla

Descendants

• ⇒ Medieval Latin: sigla (plural; later interpreted as singular feminine)
  • → Catalan: sigla
  • → French: sigle
    • → German: Sigel
  • → Italian: sigla
  • → Portuguese: sigla
• → English: siglum