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symbol

  (sĭm'bəl)

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symbol

(Copyright 2000 Houghton Mifflin Company)

1. Something that represents something else by association, resemblance, or convention, especially a material object used to represent something invisible. See synonyms at sign.
2. A printed or written sign used to represent an operation, element, quantity, quality, or relation, as in mathematics or music.
3. Psychology. An object or image that an individual unconsciously uses to represent repressed thoughts, feelings, or impulses: a phallic symbol.

To symbolize.

[Middle English symbole, creed, from Old French, from Latin symbolum, token, mark, from Greek sumbolon, token for identification (by comparison with a counterpart) : sun-, syn- + ballein, to throw.]

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In data compression, a unit of data (byte, floating point number, spoken word, etc.) that is treated independently.

noun

1. An object associated with and serving to identify something else: attribute, emblem. See substitute.
2. A conventional mark used in a writing system: character, sign. See marks.

verb

To serve as an example, image, or symbol of: epitomize, exemplify, illustrate, represent, stand for, symbolize, typify. See substitute.

! mathematics The factorial expression, i.e. 2! equals the product 2 × 1, 3! = 3 × 2 × 1, etc.

!! mathematics The double-step factorial expression, i.e. 3!! equals the product 3 × 1, 5! = 5 × 3 × 1, etc., used in radiative transition probabilities.
[Weisskopf V. F. Phys. Rev. Ser. 2 Vol. 83, 1073 (1951)]

″ See second.

# The ‘numero’ symbol, used widely in North America as a prefix for both an identifying number and a numeric count; because it replaces the £ sign on many keyboards, it is often called ‘pound’.

% See percentage.

′ See prime.

(g)² See square grade.

(°)² See square degree.

* A multiply symbol, e.g. a*b means a multiplied by b.

** An exponentiation symbol, e.g. a**b means a to the power b.

+ The ‘plus’ symbol, applicable to the addition operation and simple signage (where it is usually omitted, implicit).

, Used in British tradition to punctuate integers, at every third position left-wards from the decimal point, but used in European practice as the decimal point. Consequently abjured within this text in favour of the space character (which is used likewise to punctuate the fractional part).

- The ‘minus’ symbol, applicable to the subtraction operation and simple signage. See negative number for form with logarithms.

. Identically the ‘full stop’ of British tradition and the ‘period’ of North America, now universally also the ‘dot’, but also the ‘decimal point’ used in English-speaking practice for separating integer and fractional parts of a number, even of a non-decimal number. Used likewise in this text.

: The ratio symbol.

∧ Used in emails and some other typographically constrained situations as an exponentiation symbol, e.g. a∧b means a to the power b.

/ Called ‘solidus’ properly but ‘slash’ vernacularly, it is used as a ratio or divider symbol, including within the formalities of the SI, e.g. a/b means a divided by b.

˜ The ‘tilde’ of Spanish orthography; used within this text, in a lowered position, to represent further unstated digits in a number.

‰ See permille, i.e. parts per thousand, akin to percentage.

° See degree; for (°)² see square degree.

• Historically the decimal point of British practice, now a multiply symbol, e.g. a·b means a multiplied by b.

∞ See infinity.

|z| See modulus.

□° See square degree.

α sub-atomic physics See fine-structure constant.

γ [Etymology: Gk letter ‘g’, its name Anglicized as gamma] See Newtonian gravitational constant.

mass (Metric) Old symbol for microgram, now properly μg.

γ_e sub-atomic physics Electron gyromagnetic ratio. See electron.

γ_n sub-atomic physics Neutron gyromagnetic ratio. See neutron.

γ_p electromagnetics Proton gyromagnetic ratio. See proton.

ɛ₀ sub-atomic physics See electric constant.

ϕ [Etymology: Gk letter ‘f’, its name Anglicized as phi] mathematics See golden ratio.

geology Relates to phi scale; see particle size.

Φ₀ electromagnetics See magnetic flux quantum.

λ [Etymology: Gk letter ‘l’, its name Anglicized as lambda] length See lambda.

volume (Metric) Old symbol for microlitre, now properly μL.

sub-atomic physics Bohr magneton; see magneton.

λ_C sub-atomic physics See Compton wavelength.

sub-atomic physics See Compton wavelength.

μ [Etymology: Gk letter ‘m’, its name Anglicized as mu, pronounced ‘mew’] (Metric) Official symbol for the prefix micro-, i.e. for 10^-6. Originally adopted to mean the micron, i.e. the micrometre (10^-6 m). Sometimes represented by the μ untouched - a deprecated practice. Often substituted by mc- with microgram in North America; see mcg.

μ₀ electromagnetics See magnetic constant.

μ_B sub-atomic physics Bohr magneton. See magneton.

μ_b pressure An improper representation of microbar.

μ_d sub-atomic physics Deuteron magnetic moment. See deuteron.

μ_Eq Microequivalent. See equivalent weight.

μ_e sub-atomic physics Electron magnetic moment. See electron.

μ_N sub-atomic physics Nuclear magneton. See magneton.

μ_n sub-atomic physics Neutron magnetic moment. See neutron.

μ_P sub-atomic physics Proton magnetic moment. See proton.

μμ (Metric) Old symbol for millimicron.

π (pi) [Etymology: Gk letter ‘p’, its name Anglicized as pi, pronounced ‘pie’] See pi.

σ [Etymology: Gk letter ‘s’, its name Anglicized as sigma] See sigma.

fundamental physical constants See Stefan-Boltzmann constant.

See also stigma; symmetry number.

σ_e sub-atomic physics See Thomson cross-section.

Ω [Etymology: Gk letter ‘O’, the final letter of that alphabet, its name Anglicized as omega] electromagnetics (Metric) Official symbol for ohm. Also prefixed, as in mΩ = milliohm; see SI alphabet.

ℵ [Etymology: The first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, its name Anglicized as aleph.] See infinity.

symbol, in the simplest sense, anything that stands for or represents something else beyond it—usually an idea conventionally associated with it. Objects like flags and crosses can function symbolically; and words are also symbols. In the semiotics of C. S. Peirce, the term denotes a kind of sign that has no natural or resembling connection with its referent, only a conventional one: this is the case with words. In literary usage, however, a symbol is a specially evocative kind of image (see imagery); that is, a word or phrase referring to a concrete object, scene, or action which also has some further significance associated with it: roses, mountains, birds, and voyages have all been used as common literary symbols. A symbol differs from a metaphor in that its application is left open as an unstated suggestion: thus in the sentence She was a tower of strength, the metaphor ties a concrete image (the ‘vehicle’: tower) to an identifiable abstract quality (the tenor: strength). Similarly, in the systematically extended metaphoric parallels of allegory, the images represent specific meanings: at the beginning of Langland's allegorical poem Piers Plowman (c.1380), the tower seen by the dreamer is clearly identified with the quality of Truth, and it has no independent status apart from this function. But the symbolic tower in Robert Browning's poem ‘ “Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came” ’ (1855), or that in W. B. Yeat's collection of poems The Tower (1928), remains mysteriously indeterminate in its possible meanings. It is therefore usually too simple to say that a literary symbol ‘stands for’ some idea as if it were just a convenient substitute for a fixed meaning; it is usually a substantial image in its own right, around which further significances may gather according to differing interpretations. The term symbolism refers to the use of symbols, or to a set of related symbols; however, it is also the name given to an important movement in late 19th‐century and early 20th‐century poetry: for this sense, see Symbolists. One of the important features of Romanticism and succeeding phases of Western literature was a much more pronounced reliance upon enigmatic symbolism in both poetry and prose fiction, sometimes involving obscure private codes of meaning, as in the poetry of Blake or Yeats. A well‐known early example of this is the albatross in Coleridge's ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ (1798). Many novelists—notably Herman Melville and D. H. Lawrence—have used symbolic methods: in Melville's Moby‐Dick (1851) the White Whale (and indeed almost every object and character in the book) becomes a focus for many different suggested meanings. Melville's extravagant symbolism was encouraged partly by the importance which American Transcendentalism gave to symbolic interpretation of the world.

Verb: symbolize.

For more information on symbol, visit Britannica.com.

1. Representation of something, e.g. sacred, such as the elements of the Eucharist.

2. Familiar object used mnemonically to represent acts, persons, ideas, or anything, e.g. the Cross for Christianity, the means by which a Saint was martyred (attribute) (such as the gridiron for St Lawrence, the flaying-knife for St Bartholomew, a dove for the Holy Spirit).

3. Something representing what it is, unlike an allegory (which is a description of a subject under the guise of some other subject of aptly suggestive resemblance: it therefore represents something it itself is not).

Bibliography

• G. Ferguson (1961)

The full bibliography for this book is available to download as a pdf file.
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From a psychoanalytic perspective, the symbol refers to all indirect and figurative representations of unconscious desire (symptoms, dreams, slips of the tongue, parapraxes, etc.). This conception of the unconscious symbol depends on a relation of general substitution where one thing takes the place of another; but unlike the term's conventional meaning, defined by the conjunction between the symbol and what is symbolized, the unconscious symbol is defined by a disjunction between symbol and symbolized.

Freud clarified this conception of the symbol following the "Project for a Scientific Psychology" (1950c [1895]), describing it as a mnemic symbol subsequent to his research into hysterical symptoms. In the case of a "standard" symbol, the connection between the symbol and what is symbolized remains, as in the example that Freud gives of the knight who fights for his lady's glove but who knows full well that the glove owes its importance to her. In this synecdoche of part for whole the conjunction of meaning is clear. With hysteria however, it is the loss of the connection between the symbol and what is symbolized that is noteworthy: "The hysteric, who weeps at A, is quite unaware that he is doing so on account of the association A-B, and B itself plays no part at all in his psychical life. The symbol has in this case taken the place of the thing entirely" (1950c, p. 349).

As a result of this disjunction of meaning, the affect that was bound to what is symbolized attaches itself to the symbol. In both instances the substitution assumes a similarity between the symbol and what is symbolized (A/B), and thus emerges the tension at the very heart of symbolic substitution between a nonsensical literal interpretation and a symbolic interpretation that supports a surplus of meaning because of the very denial or negation [négation] precluding the pure and simple assimilation of the two terms in question. In the case of the hysterical symbol, it is the impossibility of invoking denial that would explain the symptom's apparent absurdity.

What might appear here as a simple relation of substitution between two terms —the symbol and what is symbolized—allows, in fact, for an interpretation where meaning might attributed according to context. The symbol's abundance derives from its polysemy, but only reference to a regulated system of interpretation can lend precision to the symbol, hence the requirement to define the system and determine what it is that permits this regulation.

Freud hesitated between two rules of interpretation. Either it depends on individual context—specifically, a person's individual associations, which permit them to discover hidden meaning, as in the hysterical symptom or in dreams—or on collective context—specifically, a work of transindividual culture that clarifies meaning, as in "symbolic dream-interpreting" (1900a, p. 97). On the subject of the dream, he depicted sexual symbols that did not arouse associations for the dreamer but that the analysis would supply by referring to the symbolism of collective compositions (myths, tales, proverbs, songs, etc.); this enabled him to rediscover the correlation between the manifest and latent symbol. This obscure and concealed comparability appeared to be based on a relationship of equivalence (a tree for the male sex organs, a cave for the female sex organs), but also occasionally on a relationship of proximity (nudity symbolized by clothes and uniforms).

If symbols are multiple, the field of what is symbolized is highly limited, relating ultimately to the domain of sexual instinct. The theory of a predetermined and stereotyped sexual symbolic, in the service of an oneiric representability, corresponds with Freud's wish to contest Jung's theory of symbolism, whose conception of the "libido-symbol" ends up denying the importance of the sexual instinct in psychic behavior. Ernest Jones's key paper, "The Theory of Symbolism" (1916), seeks moreover to reinforce the Freudian theory of "symbolic dream-interpretation"; for Jones all true symbolism is the substitute for repressed drives/instincts: "Only that which is repressed is symbolized and only that which is repressed requires symbolization."

It is a question then of finding a rule of interpretation that can substantiate the discovery of the unconscious. To back up his theory Freud adopted the linguist Hans Sperber's theory of a primitive language [langue] parallel to the primitive language system [langage] of sexuality in which all symbolic connections would appear as traces and relics: "That which today is linked symbolically was in all probability formerly linked conceptually and linguistically." Freud is thus compelled to set out from a real anteriority, in a proximate association, or identity even, that belongs, through a similar association, to language and to a process of symbolization that is inseparable from the work of instinct.

Thus, the theory of the symbolic designates more of a structural demand than a clinical truth. In clinical terms, Freud always mistrusted instant symbolic interpretations and preferred to rely on individual associations that allowed him to uncover a linguistic usage that would justify the use of a symbolic representation.

Freud's theory of the symbol cannot therefore be separated from a conception of symbolization, which bears out the fact that the psychoanalytic approach is more a tripartite theory of interpretation, where it is necessary to consider the subject who symbolizes, than a theory of translation seeking to proceed via the simple substitution of one term for another. Freud's uncertainty demonstrates the difficulty of constructing a theory of the symbol while making allowances for the symbol both as a motivated sign (the symbol for Ferdinand de Saussure, corresponding to a natural analogy between symbol and symbolized) and as an arbitrary sign (the symbol for Charles Sanders Pierce, corresponding to the standard rule governing the signifier and signified, in other words to the arbitrary linguistic sign).

What is problematic with this theory of the symbolic is the conception of symbolization as a failure of sublimation rather than as its accomplishment. This opposition marks a return in too radical a fashion to the opposition between a symbolism of the unconscious and a symbolism of language. Post-Freudian theorists have sought to reconcile these different aspects of the symbol, whether through a semantic perspective associated with the image, as in the case of Melanie Klein and post-Kleinian theorists, or through a syntactic approach associated with language, as in the case of Jacques Lacan. It is a question in both cases of reviving the Freudian intuition of the symbol as the result of a process of symbolization. To Klein's interpretation of the imaginary, which retains a certain psychological realism, Lacan opposed reference to the symbolic order that represents an intellectualization of the unconscious.

The approach to symbolization as a process presupposes the preservation of that which Freud, rather awkwardly, wished always to have prevail: namely, the necessity for a dualism, for the articulation of a viable distinction between the symbolism of the image and the symbolism of language. The truth of Freudian empiricism in the theory of primitive language, like the original proximity of the symbol, is no doubt to mark the importance of this fundamental proximity of the psyche with the body as the juncture between representation and affect, between meaning and primitive animism, characteristic of the hallucinatory satisfaction of desire.

Bibliography

Freud, Sigmund. (1900a). The interpretation of dreams. Part I, SE, 4: 1-338; Part II, SE, 5, 339-625.

——. (1950c [1895]). Project for a scientific psychology. SE, 1: 281-387.

Jones, Ernest. (1916). The theory of symbolism. Papers on psychoanalysis. Boston: Beacon.

Further Reading

Segal, Hanna. (1978). On symbolism. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 59, 315-320.

—ALAIN GIBEAULT

Something that represents or suggests something else. Symbols often take the form of words, visual images, or gestures that are used to convey ideas and beliefs. All human cultures use symbols to express the underlying structure of their social systems, to represent ideal cultural characteristics, such as beauty, and to ensure that the culture is passed on to new generations. Symbolic relationships are learned rather than biologically or naturally determined, and each culture has its own symbols.

An object or name that stands for something else, especially a material thing that stands for something that is not material. The bald eagle is a symbol of the United States of America. The cross is a symbol of Christianity. The Star of David is a symbol of Judaism.

An image transferred by something that stands for or represents something else, like flag for country, or autumn for maturity. Symbols can transfer the ideas embodied in the image without stating them.

n.

Something that is supposed to typify or stand for something else. Many symbols are mere "survivals" -- things which having no longer any utility continue to exist because we have inherited the tendency to make them; as funereal urns carved on memorial monuments. They were once real urns holding the ashes of the dead. We cannot stop making them, but we can give them a name that conceals our helplessness.

Quotes:

"The symbolic view of things is a consequence of long absorption in images. Is sign language the real language of Paradise?" - Hugo Ball

"The whole visible universe is but a storehouse of images and signs to which the imagination will give a relative place and value; it is a sort of pasture which the imagination must digest and transform." - Charles Baudelaire

"The society of merchants can be defined as a society in which things disappear in favor of signs. When a ruling class measures its fortunes, not by the acre of land or the ingot of gold, but by the number of figures corresponding ideally to a certain number of exchange operations, it thereby condemns itself to setting a certain kind of humbug at the center of its experience and its universe. A society founded on signs is, in its essence, an artificial society in which man's carnal truth is handled as something artificial." - Albert Camus

"In a symbol there is concealment and yet revelation: here therefore, by silence and by speech acting together, comes a double significance. In the symbol proper, what we can call a symbol, there is ever, more or less distinctly and directly, some embodiment and revelation of the Infinite; the Infinite is made to blend itself with the Finite, to stand visible, and as it were, attainable there. By symbols, accordingly, is man guided and commanded, made happy, made wretched." - Thomas Carlyle

"If you are to reach masses of people in this world, you must do it by a sign language. Whether your vehicle be commerce, literature, or politics, you can do nothing but raise signals, and make motions to the people." - John Jay Chapman

"All abstract sciences are nothing but the study of relations between signs." - Denis Diderot

See more famous quotes about Symbols

This article presents the essential definitions. For links to more complete treatments of specialized meanings, see Symbol (disambiguation).

The musical instrument is spelled cymbal.

Religious symbols

Symbols are objects, characters, or other concrete representations of ideas, concepts, or other abstractions. For example, in the United States, Canada and Great Britain, a red octagon is a symbol for the traffic sign meaning "STOP".

Common examples of symbols are the symbols used on maps to denote places of interest, such as crossed sabers 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. ^[1] See: phallic symbol and yonic symbol.

All language is made up of symbols. The word "cat", whether spoken or written, is not a cat, but is a symbol for 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" (zu-fall), 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/chance find?] 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[1] 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 is 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.

The essence of a cultural object is that it is a token in the process of symbolization. White defined the symbolate as the object created by the act of symbolization, just as an isolate is created by the act of isolation. The scepter stands for royal power, but before this act of symbolization it did not exist as a symbolate, but only as a rod. The scepter was created by its use as a symbol. We are conscious of the symbol, but not of the symbolate.

Symbolates are real objects. The act of symbolization endows the rod with a power it did not possess previously. Ordinary rods have no effect on audiences, but scepters do. However, the power does not reside only in the scepter. Its location is diffuse, some in the people, some in the king, some in the audience. Humanity lives in a world of diffuse powers and possibilities and creates symbolates to communicate with or to manipulate other people.

See also

Alchemy Applied Drama Asemic writing Check (mark) Computer icons Dramatic symbol Emblem Font Glyph Grapheme

Icon (religious) and secular icon Letter frequencies List of common symbols List of symbols Logo Logotype Map-territory relation National symbol Religious symbolism Punctuation

Representation Second-order simulacra Semiotics Sign (linguistics) Siglas poveiras Symbol rate Symbol Grounding Problem Table of mathematical symbols Typography Unicode symbols

References

Notes

1. ^ David G. Myers, Psychology, Worth Publishers; 7th edition (June 6, 2004) ISBN 0716752514 ISBN-13 978-0716752516, p. 282

Other references

• Webster's New International Dictionary of the English Language, Second Edition, Unabridged, W.A. Neilson, T.A. Knott, P.W. Carhart (eds.), G. & C. Merriam Company, Springfield, MA, 1950.

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

Dansk (Danish)
n. - symbol, tegn, sindbillede
v. tr. - symbolisere

Nederlands (Dutch)
symbool, teken

Français (French)
n. - symbole
v. tr. - symboliser

Deutsch (German)
n. - Symbol
v. - symbolisieren

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - σύμβολο, έμβλημα

Italiano (Italian)
simbolo

Português (Portuguese)
n. - símbolo (m)

Русский (Russian)
символ, эмблема, знак, условное обозначение, знак различия

Español (Spanish)
n. - símbolo, señal, signo, marca
v. tr. - simbolizar

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - symbol, tecken, sinnebild

中文（简体） (Chinese (Simplified))
符号, 象征, 记号

中文（繁體） (Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 符號, 象徵, 記號
v. tr. - 象徵

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 상징, 기호, 심벌
v. tr. - 상징하다, 부호로 나타내다

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 象徴, 記号, 信条

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) رمز‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮סמל, סימן‬
v. tr. - ‮סימן, סימל‬

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