Part 386

||Si*gil"lum (?), n.; pl. Sigilla (#). [L.] (Rom. & Old Eng. Law) A ||seal.

||Sig"la (?), n. pl. [L.] The signs, abbreviations, letters, or ||characters standing for words, shorthand, etc., in ancient ||manuscripts, or on coins, medals, etc. W. Savage.

||Sig"ma (?), n.; pl. Sigmas (#). [L., from Gr. &?;&?;&?;, &?;&?;&?;.] ||The Greek letter , σ, or (English S, or s). It originally had ||the form of the English C.

Sig"mo*dont (?), n. [Gr. &?;&?;&?; sigma (&?;) + &?;&?;&?;, &?;&?;&?;, a tooth.] (Zoöl.) Any one of a tribe (Sigmodontes) of rodents which includes all the indigenous rats and mice of America. So called from the form of the ridges of enamel on the crowns of the worn molars. Also used adjectively.

{ Sig"moid (?), Sig*moid"al (?), } a. [Gr. &?;&?;&?;; &?;&?;&?; sigma + &?;&?;&?; form, likeness: cf. F. sigmoïde.] Curved in two directions, like the letter S, or the Greek .

Sigmoid flexure (Anat.), the last curve of the colon before it terminates in the rectum. See Illust. under Digestive. -- Sigmoid valves. (Anat.) See Semilunar valves, under Semilunar.

Sig*moid"al*ly, adv. In a sigmoidal manner.

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Sign (?), n. [F. signe, L. signum; cf. AS. segen, segn, a sign, standard, banner, also fr. L. signum. Cf. Ensign, Resign, Seal a stamp, Signal, Signet.] That by which anything is made known or represented; that which furnishes evidence; a mark; a token; an indication; a proof. Specifically: (a) A remarkable event, considered by the ancients as indicating the will of some deity; a prodigy; an omen. (b) An event considered by the Jews as indicating the divine will, or as manifesting an interposition of the divine power for some special end; a miracle; a wonder.

Through mighty signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God.

Rom. xv. 19.

It shall come to pass, if they will not believe thee, neither hearken to the voice of the first sign, that they will believe the voice of the latter sign.

Ex. iv. 8.

(c) Something serving to indicate the existence, or preserve the memory, of a thing; a token; a memorial; a monument.

What time the fire devoured two hundred and fifty men, and they became a sign.

Num. xxvi. 10.

(d) Any symbol or emblem which prefigures, typifles, or represents, an idea; a type; hence, sometimes, a picture.

The holy symbols, or signs, are not barely significative; but what they represent is as certainly delivered to us as the symbols themselves.

Brerewood.

Saint George of Merry England, the sign of victory.

Spenser.

(e) A word or a character regarded as the outward manifestation of thought; as, words are the sign of ideas. (f) A motion, an action, or a gesture by which a thought is expressed, or a command or a wish made known.

They made signs to his father, how he would have him called.

Luke i. 62.

(g) Hence, one of the gestures of pantomime, or of a language of a signs such as those used by the North American Indians, or those used by the deaf and dumb.

Educaters of the deaf distinguish between natural signs, which serve for communicating ideas, and methodical, or systematic, signs, adapted for the dictation, or the rendering, of written language, word by word; and thus the signs are to be distinguished from the manual alphabet, by which words are spelled on the fingers.

(h) A military emblem carried on a banner or a standard. Milton. (i) A lettered board, or other conspicuous notice, placed upon or before a building, room, shop, or office to advertise the business there transacted, or the name of the person or firm carrying it on; a publicly displayed token or notice.

The shops were, therefore, distinguished by painted signs, which gave a gay and grotesque aspect to the streets.