Symbol  

From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia

Iconologia (1593) by Cesare Ripa was an emblem book highly influential on Baroque imagery

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1. A character or glyph representing an idea, concept or object.

   example

   • "$ is the symbol for dollars in the US and some other countries"
   • "'#' is the hash symbol"

2. Any object, typically material, which is meant to represent another (usually abstract) even if there is no meaningful relationship.

   example

   • "The dollar symbol has no relationship to the concept of currency or any related idea."

3. A type of noun whereby the form refers to the same entity independently of the context; a symbol arbitrarily denotes a referent. See also icon and index.
4. A summary of a dogmatic statement of faith.

   example

   • The Apostles, Nicene Creed and the confessional books of Protestantism, such as the Augsburg Confession of Lutheranism are considered symbols.

Symbols are objects, characters, or other concrete representations of ideas, concepts, or other abstractions. For example, in the United States, a red octagon is a symbol for the traffic sign meaning "STOP". In more psychological and philosophical terms, every perception is symbolic, and humans often react to symbolism on a subconscious level.

Psychology has found that people, and even animals, can respond to symbols as if they were the objects they represent. Pavlov's dogs salivated when they heard a sound which they associated with food, even if there was no food. Common psychological symbols include a gun to represent a penis or a tunnel to represent a vagina. See: phallic symbol and yonic symbol.

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 σύμβολον ἤδη μοι μέγ᾽ ὀνήσιμον "symbolon [symbol/sign/portent/encounter/chance find?] of joy to me!" before turning it into a lyre.

Related terms

• punctuation
• symbolic
• symbolize
• symbolism

See also

• Alchemy
• Asemic writing
• Emblem
• Font
• Glyph
• Grapheme
• Icon (religious) and secular icon
• Letter frequencies
• List of symbols
• Logo
• Logotype
• Map-territory relation
• National symbol
• Psychoanalysis
• Punctuation
• Religious symbolism
• Representation
• Semiotics
• Sign (linguistics)
• Typography