signet

From Old French signet (“small seal”), from Medieval Latin signētum, diminutive of Latin signum (“sign”).

• (UK, US, Canada, General Australian) IPA^(key): /ˈsɪɡ.nɪt/

  • Audio (California):

    (file)

• Homophone: cygnet

signet (plural signets)

1. (historical) An object (especially a ring) formerly used to impress a picture into the sealing wax of a document as a proof of its origin.
   • c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene ii]:

     I had my fathers Signet in my Purse, / Which was the Modell of that Danish Seale:

   • 1844, Robert Browning, The Laboratory:

     To carry pure death in an earring, a casket,
     A signet, a fan-mount, a filigree basket!

• signet ring

• siglum

• seal (emblem) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• get-ins, ingest, stinge, tinges

Old French signet.

• IPA^(key): /si.ɲɛ/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Audio (Canada):

  (file)

signet m (plural signets)

1. bookmark (strip used to mark a place in a book)

   Synonym: marque-page

2. (historical) signet

   Synonym: chevalière

• → German: Signet

• “signet”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

• gisent

signet

1. third-person singular present active subjunctive of signō

Borrowed from French signet.

signet n (plural signete)

1. bookmark