Science & TechnologyGreek → English
Semaphore
/ˈsɛməfɔːr/noun
A signalling system that spells out letters with flags or movable arms held in fixed positions.
The Greek roots
σῆμα
sêma
sign, signal
φορός
phorós
bearing, carrying
Literally: “sign bearer”
The story of the word
The word is French, built around 1812 for the chain of shutter towers that carried dispatches across Napoleonic France faster than any horse. Claude Chappe called his own system a télégraphe, so sémaphore attached itself to the arm signals used on coasts and later on railways. σῆμα also meant a grave marker, the sign set over a body, and it gives semantics and semiotics.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → French → English
- First recorded
- 1816
Same family
semanticssemioticsmetaphorphosphorus
In a sentence
Two cadets stood on the pier working semaphore while the radio was down.