Art & MusicGreek → English
Emblem
/ˈɛmbləm/noun
A design or object that stands for a group, an idea or a nation.
The Greek roots
ἐν
en
in
βάλλειν
bállein
to throw, put
Literally: “thing thrown in”
The story of the word
For the Greeks an ἔμβλημα was physical: a mosaic panel or a metal relief set into a larger surface. The symbolic sense comes from the emblem books of the Renaissance, starting with Andrea Alciato's Emblemata in 1531, which paired a picture with a motto and a verse. Those books taught Europe to read images as arguments, and heraldry absorbed the habit.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
- First recorded
- 14th century
The same roots elsewhere
Other languages reached for exactly the same Greek pieces.
Same family
problemsymbolparableballistic
In a sentence
The olive branch on the flag is an emblem of the truce that founded the town.