emblem

From Old French embleme, from Latin emblema (“raised ornaments on vessels, tessellated work, mosaic”), from Ancient Greek ἔμβλημα (émblēma, “an insertion”), from ἐμβάλλειν (embállein, “to put in, to lay on”). Doublet of emblema.

• IPA^(key): /ˈɛmbləm/

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• Hyphenation: em‧blem

emblem (plural emblems)

1. A representative symbol, such as a trademark or logo.

   Synonyms: symbol, token

   The medical trucks were emblazoned with the emblem of the Red Cross.

   • c. 1604–1605 (date written), William Shakespeare, “All’s VVell, that Ends VVell”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act II, scene i], page 235:

     His ſicatrice, with an Embleme of warre, heere on his ſiniſter cheeke;

2. Something that represents a larger whole.

   The rampant poverty in the ethnic slums was just an emblem of the group's disenfranchisement by the society as a whole.

   • 2014 October 21, Oliver Brown, “Oscar Pistorius jailed for five years – sport afforded no protection against his tragic fallibilities […] ”, in The Daily Telegraph (Sport)‎:

     Yes, there were instances of grandstanding and obsessive behaviour, but many were concealed at the time to help protect an aggressively peddled narrative of Pistorius the paragon, the emblem, the trailblazer.

3. Inlay; inlaid or mosaic work; something ornamental inserted in a surface.
   • 1667, John Milton, “(please specify the book number)”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […], OCLC 228722708; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, OCLC 230729554:

     Broider'd the ground, more color'd than with stone
     Of costliest emblem

4. A picture accompanied with a motto, a set of verses, etc. intended as a moral lesson or meditation.
   • 1718, Francis Quarles, Emblems, divine and moral ; together with Hieroglyphicks of the life of man:

     An Emblem is but a ſilent Parable:

emblem (third-person singular simple present emblems, present participle embleming, simple past and past participle emblemed)

1. (obsolete, transitive) To symbolize.

• emblem in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• emblem in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911

emblem n (singular definite emblemet, plural indefinite emblemer)

1. emblem

• “emblem” in Den Danske Ordbog

From French emblème, from Latin emblema, from Ancient Greek ἔμβλημα (émblēma, “an insertion”).

emblem n (definite singular emblemet, indefinite plural emblem or emblemer, definite plural emblema or emblemene)

1. an emblem

• “emblem” in The Bokmål Dictionary.
• “emblem” in Det Norske Akademis ordbok (NAOB).

From French emblème, from Latin emblema, from Ancient Greek ἔμβλημα (émblēma).

emblem n (definite singular emblemet, indefinite plural emblem, definite plural emblema)

1. an emblem

• “emblem” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

emblem n (plural embleme)

1. Obsolete form of emblemă.

• emblem in Academia Română, Micul dicționar academic, ediția a II-a, Bucharest: Univers Enciclopedic, 2010. →ISBN

emblem n

1. emblem