segnacolo

Italian

Alternative forms

• signacolo, signaculo (obsolete)

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin signāculum (“seal, signet”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /seɲˈɲa.ko.lo/
• Rhymes: -akolo
• Hyphenation: se‧gnà‧co‧lo

Noun

segnacolo m (plural segnacoli) (literary)

1. (literal and figurative) sign, symbol, emblem
   • 1321, Dante Alighieri, La divina commedia: Paradiso, Le Monnier, published 2002, Canto XXVII, page 485, lines 46, 49–51:

     Non fu nostra intenzion […] che le chiavi che mi fuor concesse, ¶ divenisser signaculo in vessillo ¶ che contra battezzati combattesse

     Our purpose was not that the keys which were to me confided should e'er become the escutcheon on a banner, that should wage war on those who are baptized

2. bookmark (strip used to mark a place in a book)
3. (by extension, rare) any kind of bookmark or bookmarker
   • trovai molti passi controsegnati in margine con matita, e una striscia di carta postavi per segnacolo

     I found many passages signed in pencil on the margin, and a slip of paper put there as a bookmarker

Related terms

• segno