Everything about Symbol totally explained
:
The musical instrument is spelled cymbal.
Symbols are
objects,
pictures, or other concrete representations of
ideas,
concepts, or other
abstractions. For example, in the United States, Canada, Australia and Great Britain, a red
octagon is a symbol for "STOP".
Common examples of symbols are the symbols used on maps to denote places of interest, such as crossed sabres to indicate a battlefield, and the
numerals used to represent
numbers. Common psychological symbols are the use of a gun to represent a
penis or a tunnel to represent a
vagina. See:
phallic symbol and
yonic symbol.
All languages are made up of symbols. The word "cat", whether spoken or written, isn't a cat but a sequence of symbols that represent a cat.
Etymology
The word "symbol" came to the
English language by way of
Middle English, from
Old French, from
Latin, from the
Greek σύμβολον (
sýmbolon) from the root words συν- (
syn-) meaning "together" and βολή (
bolē) "a throw", having the approximate meaning of "to throw together", literally a "co-incidence", also "sign, ticket, or contract". The earliest attestation of the term is in the
Homeric Hymn to
Hermes where Hermes on seeing the
tortoise exclaims
συμβολον ηδη μοι "
symbolon [symbol/sign/portent/encounter/chancefind?] of joy to me!" before turning it into a
lyre.
The symbolate
A technical term for an object that serves as a symbol is a symbolate. For example, a scepter
(External Link
) is a symbol of royal power. In addition to being a symbol, a scepter is also an object which can be picked up and wielded, and which only fulfills its symbolic purpose when it's wielded by a
monarch.
Objects have physical properties; a scepter is essentially a rod with ornamentation. A rod only becomes a scepter when the people viewing the rod accept it as a scepter.
An alien from outer space might describe a royal audience as follows: A human
Homo sapiens wrapped in fibers reflecting light at the high end of the visible frequency range moved an ornamented rod against gravity, at which time other individuals ceased emitting complex sound waves. A human would say that the monarch dressed in a purple robe waved the scepter to silence the crowd.
What is the difference between these two meanings?
Leslie White approached the question in an effort to define
cultural objects, such as a law, a constitution, a marriage ceremony. All the nouns in the paragraph above are cultural objects: the monarch, the robe, the scepter, the language, and the subjects.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Symbol'.
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