Stele vs Sign - What's the difference?
stele | sign |
* (Geoffrey Chaucer), The Canterbury Tales , "the Tale of the Wyf of Bathe"
(archaeology) An upright (or formerly upright) slab containing engraved or painted decorations or inscriptions; a stela.
* 1820 , T. S. Hughes, Trav. Sicily , I x 303:
* 1825 , T. D. Fosbroke, Encycl. Antiq. , I v 70:
* 1847 , J. Leitch translating C. O. Müller, Anc. Art , §224 193:
* 1884 , A. Lang, Custom & Myth , 285:
(archaeology, uncommon) Any carved or engraved surface.
* 1877 , A. B. Edwards, Thousand Miles up Nile , VI 143:
(architecture, archaeology, obsolete) An acroterion, the decoration on the ridge of an ancient Greek building such as a temple.
* Hosking, "Architecture" in Encyclopædia Britannica , III 470:
(botany) The central core of a plant's root and stem system, especially including the vascular tissue and developed from the plerome.
* 1895 , Sydney Howard Vines, A Students' Text-book of Botany , 179:
* 1898 , Hobart Charles Porter translating Eduard Strasburger & al. A Text-book of Botany , 109:
(sometimes, also used uncountably) A visible indication.
*
, title=(The Celebrity), chapter=5
, passage=Although the Celebrity was almost impervious to sarcasm, he was now beginning to exhibit visible signs of uneasiness, the consciousness dawning upon him that his eccentricity was not receiving the ovation it merited.}}
A clearly visible object, generally flat, bearing a short message in words or pictures.
* Macaulay
A traffic sign.
A meaningful gesture.
Any of several specialized non-alphabetic symbols.
(astrology) An astrological sign.
(mathematics) Positive or negative polarity.
A specific gesture or motion used to communicate by those with speaking or hearing difficulties; now specifically, a linguistic unit in sign language equivalent to word in spoken languages.
*, II.12:
* 2007 , Marcel Danesi, The Quest for Meaning :
(uncountable) Sign language in general.
An omen.
(medicine) A property of the body that indicates a disease and, unlike a symptom, is unlikely to be noticed by the patient.
A military emblem carried on a banner or standard.
To make a mark
#
#:The Queen signed her letter with the regal signet.
# To mark, to put or leave a mark on.
#*1726 , Elijah Fenton, The Odyssey of Homer :
#*:Meantime revolving in his thoughtful mind / The scar, with which his manly knee was sign'd […].
# To validate or ratify (a document) by writing one's signature on it.
#*c. 1597 , (William Shakespeare), The Merchant of Venice :
#*:Enquire the Iewes house out, giue him this deed, / And let him signe it […].
# More generally, to write one's signature on (something) as a means of identification etc.
#
#:Just sign your name at the bottom there.
#:I received a letter from some woman who signs herself ‘Mrs Trellis’.
# To write one's signature.
# To finalise a contractual agreement to work for a given sports team, record label etc.
#*2011 , The Guardian , (headline), 18 Oct 2011:
#*:Agents say Wales back Gavin Henson has signed for Cardiff Blues.
# To engage (a sports player, musician etc.) in a contract.
To make the sign of the cross
# To bless (someone or something) with the sign of the cross; to mark with the sign of the cross.
#* Book of Common Prayer
#*:We receive this child into the congregation of Christ's flock, and do sign him with the sign of the cross.
#*1971 , , Religion and the Decline of Magic , Folio Society 2012, p. 34:
#*:At the baptismal ceremony the child was […] signed with the cross in holy water.
# (reflexive) To cross oneself.
#*1855 , (Robert Browning), Men and Women :
#*:Shaking a fist at him with one fierce arm, / Signing himself with the other because of Christ.
To indicate
# To communicate using a gesture or signal.
#* Sir Walter Scott:
# To communicate using gestures to (someone).
#:He signed me that I should follow him through the doorway.
# To use sign language.
# To furnish (a road etc.) with signs.
As nouns the difference between stele and sign
is that stele is obsolete form of lang=en|stale||handle shaft, stem while sign is a visible indication.As a verb sign is
to make a mark.stele
English
(wikipedia stele)Etymology 1
A parallel etymology to , distinguished via ablaut.Noun
(en noun)- ...in o]] purpos stedefastly to dwelle
And nat biwreye thing that men us telle
...that tale is nat worth a rake-stele
L'ardee, we wommen conne [[nothing, no-thing hele [=hide ]
Etymology 2
From (etyl) . (stele)Alternative forms
* *Noun
(en-noun)- A superior class of members...had their names inscribed upon a marble stélé or column.
- It appears, that when any one of the family died, a stelè to his memory was added to the tomb.
- In Egypt [obelisks] belonged to the class of steles (commemorative pillars).
- The Australian stele , or grave-pillar.
- Two large hieroglyphed steles incised upon the face of a projecting mass of boldly rounded cliff.
- Stele. The ornaments on the ridge of a Greek temple, answering to the antefixæ on the summit of the flank entablatures, are thus designated.
Usage notes
* Although stela'' and ''stele'' were used in antiquity for pillars and columns generally, and continued to carry that meaning when their use was revived in English archaeology and architecture in the 18th and 19th century, respectively, present usage usually distinguishes ''obelisks'', ''columns'', ''shafts'' (the body of a column between the capital and the pediment), etc., from ''stela'' and ''stele , which are used to refer to engraved slabs or small pillars. * Furthermore, although the terms still refer to small pillarlike gravestones from antiquity, the similar-looking herms'' are now often distinguished, as are modern ''gravestones'', ''monuments'', ''boundary markers , etc. * The terms do sometimes refer to undecorated rocks when they have been raised by artificial means in prehistoric times, particularly when they are slab-like, but the large Neolithic menhirs'' are usually distinguished as are Chinese ''scholar's rocks'' or ''Taihu rocks , and other modern uses of upright stones as decoration or signage. * Stele'' is frequently pluralized irregularly as stelae, but this is a hypercorrection arising from confusion with the Latin-derived ''stela . The anglicized Greek plural (stelai) has been used since the late 19th century but is less common than (m).Synonyms
* stelaDerived terms
* actinostele * atactostele * dictyostele * eustele * haplostele * plectostele * protostele * siphonostele * solenosteleEtymology 3
From 1886 (etyl) .Noun
(en noun)- The stele may have—in different structures—one to many protoxylem (primitive wood) groups, and is accordingly described as monarch...diarch...triarch...tetrarch...polyarch.
- The so-called central cylinder, for which Van Tieghem has proposed the name stele (column).
Anagrams
* * * * ----sign
English
(wikipedia sign)Etymology 1
From (etyl) signe, from (etyl) ; root uncertain.Noun
(en noun)- The shops were, therefore, distinguished by painted signs , which gave a gay and grotesque aspect to the streets.
- And why not, as well as our dumbe men dispute, argue and tell histories by signes ?
- In American Sign Language (ASL), for instance, the sign for 'catch' is formed with one hand (in the role of agent) moving across the body (an action) to grasp the forefinger of the other hand (the patient).
- (Milton)
Derived terms
* air sign * astrological sign * earth sign * fire sign * high sign * Indian sign * minus sign * neon sign * plus sign * road sign * sign language * sign of life * star sign * street sign * traffic sign * vital sign * water signEtymology 2
From (etyl) (seigner), (seiner) et al., (etyl) signer et al., and their source, (etyl) ; see Etymology 1, above. Compare (sain).Verb
(en verb)- I forgot to sign that letter to my aunt.
- Please sign on the dotted line.
- It was a great month. I managed to sign three major players.
- I signed to Browne to make his retreat.
