emblem

views updated May 21 2018

em·blem / ˈembləm/ • n. a heraldic device or symbolic object as a distinctive badge of a nation, organization, or family: America's national emblem, the bald eagle. ∎  a thing serving as a symbolic representation of a particular quality or concept: our child would be a dazzling emblem of our love.DERIVATIVES: em·blem·at·ic / ˌembləˈmatik/ adj.em·blem·at·i·cal adj.

emblem

views updated Jun 08 2018

emblem a heraldic device or symbolic object as a distinctive badge of a nation, organization, or family. The word is recorded from the late 16th century (as a verb), and comes from Latin emblema ‘inlaid work, raised ornament’, from Greek emblēma ‘insertion’, from emballein ‘throw in, insert’.
emblem book a book of a kind popular in medieval and Renaissance Europe, containing drawings accompanied by allegorical interpretations.

emblem

views updated May 14 2018

emblem.
1. Picture, sign, or device expressing a moral allegory.

2. Picture of an object serving as a symbolic representation of an abstraction.

3. Device used as a badge of a person, family, Saint, etc. C16 and C17 emblems were often connected with hidden meanings, and books of emblematic designs were important sources of architectural decoration.

emblem

views updated Jun 08 2018

emblem †allegorical picture XV; symbolical representation, figured object with symbolic meaning XVII. — L. emblēma inlaid work, raised ornament — Gr. émblēma, -at-, insertion. f. emblē, embállein throw in, insert, f. EM-2 + bállein throw.
Hence emblematic(al) XVII.

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