22C:096
Computation, Information, and Description

Lecture Notes

Lecture 1

Definition of "symbol"

From Webster's New World Dictionary

symbol

1. an object used to represent something abstract; emblem: as, the dove is a symbol of peace. 2. a mark, letter, abbreviation, etc. standing for an object, quality, process, quantity, etc., as in music, chemistry, mathematics, etc.

From the Oxford English Dictionary.

symbol, sb.[1] Also 6 simbole, 6-7 symbole, -boll, 7 simbol; also in L. form. [ad. late L. symbolum (partly through Fr. symbole, 16th c. = Ital., Sp. sim-, Pg. symbolo), a. Gr. o uBo>ov mark, token, ticket, `tessera', f. o v SYM- + root of Bo> , B >os a throw (cf. ouuB >>civ to put together, f. o v SYM- + B >>civ to throw).]

1 a A formal authoritative statement or summary of the religious belief of the Christian church, or of a particular church or sect; a creed or confession of faith, spec. the Apostles' Creed. This use is traceable to Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage (C. 250), who applies L. symbolum to the baptismal creed, this creed being the `mark' or `sign' of a Christian as distinguished from a heathen. The notion, long current, that the creed was so called because it was `put together' by the Apostles is without foundation in fact. 1450-1530 Myrr. our Ladye III. 312 Thys crede ys called Simbolum, that ys to say a gatherynge of morselles. for eche of the 1490 CAXTON How to Die 4 The credo and symbole of the fayth. 1536 HEN. VIII in Burnet Hist. Ref. (1679) I. Collect. Rec. 306 All..things..which be comprehended in the whole body and Canon of the Bible, and..in the three Creeds or Symbols. 1539 HILSEY Man. Prayers C iij b, The Symbole or Crede of the greate doctour Athanasius. 1585 T. WASHINGTON tr. Nicholay's Voy. IV. xiii. 126 b, He sayde..the Lordes Prayer, the salutation of the Aungell, and the Symbole of the Apostles. 1602 PARSONS Warn-word I. xiv. 100 b, The Symbolum or Creed of the Apostles. A. 1638 in Chillingw. Relig. Prot. I. iv. f27. 205 The Symbole is a briefe yet entire Methodicall summe of Christian Doctrine. 1699 T. BAKER Refl. Learn. xiv. 175 Enquiring into the number of Symbols, he adds a fourth to the other three. 1887 Ch. Q. Rev. Apr. 20 The symbolum Quicunque vult, whether regarded as an actual Creed..or as a hymn on the Creed..has an intense value of its own. 1887 CAROLINE HAZARD Mem. J. L. Diman vii. 150 The Nicene Creed, the great symbol in which the divinity of Christ is asserted and defined. 1912 Ch. Q. Rev. July 349 Salnar, in 1581, gathered the ten chief Symbols of the Reformed Churches in his Harmonia Confessionum Fidei.
b transf. A brief or sententious statement; a formula, motto, maxim; occas. a summary, synopsis. Obs. 1594 NASHE Unfort. Trav. 50 The simbole thereto [sc. to the helmet] annexed was this, Ex lachrimis lachrim. 1644 BULWER Chirol. 94 The Cynique in his symbole advising men to adde benignity to their courtship. 1656 BLOUNT Glossogr. [from Cotgrave], Symbole..a short and intricate riddle or sentence. 1662 OWEN Disc. Liturgies iii. 16 That they might have [in the Lord's Prayer] a summary Symbole of all the most excellent things they were to ask of God. 1751 JOHNSON Rambler No. 117 P 3 The celebrated symbol of Pythagoras, vcu v nvc vtwv tn`v xw` npook vci; `when the wind blows, worship its echo.'
2 a Something that stands for, represents, or denotes something else (not by exact resemblance, but by vague suggestion, or by some accidental or conventional relation); esp. a material object representing or taken to represent something immaterial or abstract, as a being, idea, quality, or condition; a representative or typical figure, sign, or token; -occas. a type (of some quality). Const. of. 1590 SPENSER F.Q. II. ii. 10 That, as a sacred Symbole, it [sc. a blood-stain] may dwell In her sonnes flesh. 1604 SHAKS. Oth. II. iii. 350 To renownce his Baptisme, All Seales, and Simbols of redeemed sin. 1612 DEKKER London Triumphing Wks. 1873 III. 245 Euery one carrying..a Symbole, or Badge of that Learning which she professeth. 1615 G. SANDYS Trav. II. 139 They [sc. ostriches] are the simplest of fowles, and symbolls of folly. 1641 J. JACKSON True Evang. T. III. 170 They play and sport together. A thing so true a symbole of deerenesse. 1646 SIR T. BROWNE Pseud. Ep. V. xxi. 265 Salt as incorruptible, was the Simbole of friendship. 1686 SOUTH Serm., Isa. v. 20 (1727) II. 333 Words are the Signs and Symbols of Things; and, as in accounts, Cyphers and Figures pass for real Sums; so..Words and Names pass for Things themselves. 1688 HOLME Armoury II. 127/1 In Arms..Oranges [are] the simbol of Dissimulation. 1765-8 ERSKINE Inst. Law Scot. III. iii. f5 Another symbol was anciently used in proof that a sale was perfected, which continues to this day in bargains of lesser importance among the lower rank of people, the parties licking and joining of thumbs. 1769 ROBERTSON Chas. V, III. x. 238 There was engraved on it a cap, the ancient symbol of freedom. 1816 SCOTT Old Mort. xix, `I deliver to you, by this symbol,' (here she gave into his hand the venerable gold-headed staff of the deceased Earl of Torwood)-`the keeping and government and seneschalship of my Tower of Tillietudlem'. 1833 TENNYSON Miller's Dau. 233 The kiss, The woven arms, seem but to be Weak symbols of the settled bliss, The comfort, I have found in thee. 1849 RUSKIN Seven Lamps iv. f2. 95 The fluting of the column, which I doubt not was the Greek symbol of the bark of the tree. 1862 H. SPENCER First Princ. I. iv. f22. (1875) 68 Ultimate religious ideas and ultimate scientific ideas, alike turn out to be merely symbols of the actual, not cognitions of it. 1865 R. W. DALE Jew. Temp. xvi. (1877) 180 The offering of incense is a natural symbol of adoration. 1909 RIDER HAGGARD Yellow God 108 The symbols of the good and evil genii on a Mohammedan tomb.
b An object representing something sacred; spec. (absol.) either of the elements in the eucharist, as representing the body and blood of Christ. 1671 EVELYN Let. to Father Patrick 27 Sept., After the prayer..the symbols become changed into the body and blood of Christ, after a sacramental, spiritual, and real manner. 1704 NELSON Fest. & Fasts ix. II. (1739) 579 Bread and Wine..by Consecration being made Symbols of the Body and Blood of Christ. 1781 J. MORISON in Transl. & Paraphr. Sc. Ch. XXXV. ii, That symbol of his flesh he broke. 1845 FORD Handbk. Spain I. III. 364 The injuries began the very day after the conquest, when..the white-washings and removals of Moslem symbols commenced. 1845 S. AUSTIN Ranke's Hist. Ref. III. 385 Whether the body [of Christ] was really in the symbols. 1870 M. D. CONWAY Earthw. Pilgr. ix. 119 We read of many..religions,..all of them surrounded with fables and symbols... Of all the symbols, the most universal was the Cross. 1877 E. PETERS tr. Pfleiderer's Paulinism vi. I. 240 This mystical element [lies] at the very root of the ancient idea of worship; the symbol is here never mere symbol, but..medium of a real connection with the actual..object of worship. 1899 W. R. INGE Chr. Mysticism vii. 258 We should..train ourselves..to consider them [sc. the sacraments] as divinely-ordered symbols, by which the Church,..and we as members of it, realise the highest and deepest of our spiritual privileges.
c Numism. A small device on a coin, additional to and usually independent of the main device or `type'. 1883 P. GARDNER Types Grk. Coins ii. 53 The symbol..is a copy or replica of the signet of the magistrate who is responsible for the coin. 1886 B. V. HEAD in L. Jewitt's Eng. Coins & Tokens 102 Small objects represented either in the field or the exergue as adjuncts to the main type are called symbols.
d Symbols collectively; symbolism. rare. 1856 EMERSON Eng. Traits, Aristocr. Wks. (Bohn) II. 77 Proud..of the language and symbol of chivalry. 1875 E. WHITE Life in Christ IV. xxv. (1878) 410 Other portions of [the Apocalypse], and those the least loaded with prophetic symbol.
3 A written character or mark used to represent something; a letter, figure, or sign conventionally standing for some object, process, etc. e.g. the figures denoting the planets, signs of the zodiac, etc. in astronomy; the letters and other characters denoting elements, etc. in chemistry, quantities, operations, etc. in mathematics, the faces of a crystal in crystallography. C. 1620 A. HUME Brit. Tongue (1865) 7 The symbol..I cal the written letter, quhilk representes to the eie the sound that the mouth sould utter. 1700 MOXON Math. Dict., Symboles, are Letters used for Numbers in Algebra. 1805-17 R. JAMESON Char. Min. (ed. 3) 184 The different letters which compose the symbol. 1827 WHATELY Logic i. f4 (ed. 2) 36 The advantage of substituting for the terms, in a regular syllogism, arbitrary unmeaning symbols, such as letters of the alphabet, is much the same as in mathematics. 1844 FOWNES Chem. 180 Table of symbols of the elementary bodies. 1849 BALFOUR Man. Bot. f713 It is usual in descriptive works to give a list of the authors, and the symbols for their names. 1882 MINCHIN Unipl. Kinemat. 186 Suppose x = f(a, b, t), y = g(a, b, t), where f and g are symbols of functionality.
4 attrib. and Comb., as symbol-essence, -figure, -flower, -god, -maker, -making, -object, -printing, -system, -user; symbol-making, -minded, -using adjs. 1818 KEATS Endym. III. 700 If he explores all forms and substances..to their symbol-essences. 1895 ELWORTHY Evil Eye 249 The typical symbol-figures representing the four Evangelists. 1821 SHELLEY Hellas 1095 Not gold, not blood, their altar dowers, But votive tears and symbol flowers. 1866 LYTTON Lost Tales Miletus, Secret Way 4 Egypt's vast symbol gods. 1981 F. INGLIS Promise of Happiness iii. 85 The nineteenth-century novelists were the symbol-makers for a new order. 1953 R. LEHMANN Echoing Grove 28 Its one round turret, its weather-cock and flag-pole all supernaturally designed in the last sun's last symbol-making glow. 1962 W. NOWOTTNY Lang. Poets Use viii. 180 A kind of linguistic ambiguity..seems frequently to occur in poems bent on symbol-making. 1936 O. NASH Primrose Path 55 Still, I think, a pig's a pig-Ah, there, symbol-minded Sig! 1977 N.Y. Times 20 Jan. 4/3 Ever since he walked home from his inauguration, Mr. Carter has presented the country with a symbol-minded Presidency. 1913 L. BLOOMFIELD in C. F. Hockett Leonard Bloomfield Anthol. (1970) 43 This symbol-object is..the word: without it no concept of action, quality, or relation can exist. 1964 E. BECKER in I. L. Horowitz New Sociol. 119 Man..possesses both thing-objects, like all other animals; and, uniquely, symbol-objects. 1875 KNIGHT Dict. Mech., Symbol-printing (Telegraphy), a system of printing in dots and marks.., or other cipher, as distinct from printing in the usual Roman letter. 1946 F. P. CHISHOLM in W. S. Knickerbocker Twentieth Cent. Eng. II. 183 The communication process involves both speakers and listeners, writers and readers, using a socially-constructed symbol-system, in whose structure `reality' must be represented. 1964 R. H. ROBINS Gen. Linguistics 13 Among symbol systems language occupies a special place. 1946 F. P. CHISHOLM in W. S. Knickerbocker Twentieth Cent. Eng. II. 172 Our distinguishing human characteristic is that we are symbol-users. 1951 J. HOLLOWAY Lang. & Intelligence vi. 95 Intelligence displayed in a symbol-using planning sequence sometimes enables us to reduce the sequence of actions to a sequence of routines. 1977 R. HOLLAND Self & Social Context i. 18 Ethnomethodology..embraces a phenomenological concern for the experiencing, symbol-using self.

symbol, sb.[2] Obs. (Also in L. form.) [ad. L. symbola, a. Gr. ouuBo> , f. ouuB >>civ (see SYMBOL sb.[1]). Cf. obs. Fr. symbole `a shot, a collation' (Cotgr.).]

A contribution (properly to a feast or picnic); a share, portion. Quot. 1627 echoes the L. phr. symbolarum collatores (Plautus), those who contribute their shot to a feast. 1627 B. JONSON in Drayton Battle Agincourt, etc. Pref. Verses a j, This reck'ning I will pay, Without conferring symboles. 1653 JER. TAYLOR Serm. for Year, Winter i. 3 The persons who are to be judged..shall all appear to receive ther Symbol. 1653 JER. TAYLOR Serm. for Year, Winter xx. 271 He refused to pay his Symbol, which himself and all the company had agreed should be given. A. 1661 FULLER Worthies, Chester (1662) I. 291 Let me contribute my Symbole on this Subject. 1667 OLDENBURG in Phil. Trans. II. 414 That they would be pleased..to joyn their Symbola's, and to send in their Proposals. 1683 A. HILL Life Barrow B.'s Wks. 1687 I. c 2, I wish they [sc. his friends] would..bring in their Symbols toward the History of his Life. 1767 A. CAMPBELL Lexiph. (1774) 57 Misocapelus instigated by the ramifications of private friendship disbursed the symbol. 1822 LAMB Elia Ser. I. Compl. Decay Beggars, To have sat down at the cripples' feast, and to have thrown in his benediction, ay, and his mite too, for a companionable symbol.

'symbol, v. [f. SYMBOL sb.[1]]

1 trans. = SYMBOLIZE 3. 1832 Examiner 595/1 English Justice, being, as she is symboled, hoodwinked. 1861 MEREDITH Evan Harrington xi, Bread and cheese symbolled his condition. 1864 TENNYSON Aylmer's F. 535 [She] read, and tore, As if the living passion symbol'd there Were living nerves to feel the rent. 1874 SYMONDS Sk. Italy & Greece (1898) I. xi. 213 Angels..with fluttering skirts..and mouths that symbol singing.
2 intr. To make signs, to signal. nonce-use. 1864 CARLYLE Fredk. Gt. XVI. i. IV. 248 They say and symbol to me, `Tell us of him!'