signifer

From Latin signifer , from signum (“sign”) + ferō (“to bear”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈsɪɡnɪfə(ɹ)/

signifer (not comparable)

1. (obsolete) Bearing signs.
   • 1601, C[aius] Plinius Secundus [i.e., Pliny the Elder], “(please specify |book=I to XXXVII)”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Historie of the World. Commonly Called, The Naturall Historie of C. Plinius Secundus. […], (please specify |tome=1 or 2), London: […] Adam Islip, →OCLC:

     the circle called Signifer, or the Zodiake

signifer (plural signifers)

1. Something that indicates or signifies; a sign, symbol, or codeword.
   • 1981, Jan Marie Lambert Peters, Pictorial Signs and the Language of Film, page 40:

     In other words: the advertiser creates a new sign of which the signifier consists of the happy face and the signified can be defined as "using this product makes (you) happy"..

   • 2013, Walter Benn Michaels, The Shape of the Signifier: 1967 to the End of History, page 60:

     Hence the commitment to the primacy of the materiality of the signifier ( to shape ) is also a commitment to the primacy of experience ( to the subject position ) . Because what something looks like must be what it looks like to someone , the appeal to the shape of the signifier is at the same time an appeal to the position and hence to the identity of its interpreter.

   • 2013, Lucy Koechlin, Corruption as an Empty Signifier, page 252:

     Although 'corruption' is still a dominant signifier in the public realm, it has all but disappeared from the public articulations of professional associations.

• fringies, Feringis, fire sign

From signum (“sign”) +‎ -fer (“carrying”).

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈsɪŋ.nɪ.fɛr]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈsiɲ.ɲi.fer]

signifer (feminine signifera, neuter signiferum); first/second-declension adjective (nominative masculine singular in -er)

1. sign-bearing, image-bearing,
2. bearing the heavenly signs or constellations, starry

   "sed signifer sanctus Michael repraesentet eas in lucem sanctam." (But may the sign-bearer, Saint Michael, lead them into the holy light)

First/second-declension adjective (nominative masculine singular in -er).

• Catalan: signífer
• Spanish: signífero

signifer m (genitive signiferī); second declension

1. standard-bearer, sign-bearer, ensign
   • 8 CE, Ovid, Fasti 5.585–586:

     signa, decus bellī, Parthus Rōmāna tenēbat,
     Rōmānaeque aquilae signifer hostis erat.

     The Roman [military] standards – the glory of war – a Parthian was holding, and the standard-bearer of the Roman eagle was an enemy.
     (See: Phraates V; aquilifer; signifer.)

2. leader, chief
3. the sky, heavens

Second-declension noun (nominative singular in -er).

• Catalan: signífer
• Italian: signifero
• Portuguese: signífero

• “signifer”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “signifer”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• signifer in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • the zodiac: orbis signifer