Definition:
A person, place, action, or thing that (by association, resemblance, or convention) represents something other than itself. Verb: symbolize. Adjective: symbolic. See also:
Etymology:
From the Greek, "token for identification"Examples and Observations:
- "The works of women are symbolical.
We sew, sew, prick our fingers, dull our sight,
Producing what? A pair of slippers, sir,
To put on when you're weary."
(Elizabeth Barret Browning, Aurora Leigh, 1857) - "Language, written or spoken, is such a symbolism. The mere sound of a word, or its shape on paper, is indifferent. The word is a symbol, and its meaning is constituted by the ideas, images, and emotions, which it raises in the mind of the hearer."
(Alfred North Whitehead, Symbolism: Its Meaning and Effect. Barbour-Page Lectures, 1927) - "A symbol is a repeatable concrete image, an object, which captures a second level of meaning from a particular experience."
(Philip Ellis Wheelwright, Metaphor and Reality. Indiana Univ. Press, 1962) - "Although symbolism works by the power of suggestion, a symbol is not the same as a meaning or a moral. A symbol cannot be an abstraction. Rather, a symbol is the thing that points to the abstraction. In Poe's 'The Raven,' death isn't the symbol; the bird is. In Crane's The Red Badge of Courage, courage isn't the symbol; blood is. Symbols are usually objects, but actions can also work as symbols--thus the term 'symbolic gesture.'
"A symbol means more than itself, but first it means itself. Like a developing image in a photographer's tray, a symbol reveals itself slowly. It's been there all along, waiting to emerge from the story, the poem, the essay--and from the writer herself."
(Rebecca McClanahan, Word Painting: A Guide to Writing More Descriptively. Writer's Digest Books, 2000)
Pronunciation: SIM-bel
Also Known As: emblem
