Character (symbol)

A character (from the Greek χαρακτήρ "engraved or stamped mark" on coins or seals, "branding mark, symbol") is a sign or symbol.

History

Greek χαρακτήρ is a nomen agentis of the verb χαράσσω (charassō) with a meaning "to sharpen, to whet", and also "to make cake", from a PIE root *g'ʰer- "cut" also continued in Irish gearr and English gash, which is perhaps an early loan ultimately from the same Greek root.

A χαρακτήρ is thus an "engraver", originally in the sense of a craftsman, but then also used for a tool used for engraving, and for a stamp for minting coins. From the stamp, the meaning was extended to the stamp impression, Plato using the noun in the sense of "engraved mark". In Plutarch, the word could refer to a figure or letter, Lucian uses it of hieroglyphs as opposed to Greek grammata (Herm. 44)

Metaphorically, it could refer to a distinctive mark, Herodotus (1.57) using it of a particular dialect, or (1.116) of a characteristic mark of an individual. The collective noun χαρακτηριστικά "characteristics" appears later, in Dionysius Halicarnassensis.

Character

Character(s) may refer to:

Art and entertainment

Persona

A persona (plural personae or personas), in the word's everyday usage, is a social role or a character played by an actor. The word is derived from Latin, where it originally referred to a theatrical mask. The Latin word probably derived from the Etruscan word "phersu", with the same meaning, and that from the Greek πρόσωπον (prosōpon). Its meaning in the latter Roman period changed to indicate a "character" of a theatrical performance or court of law, when it became apparent that different individuals could assume the same role, and legal attributes such as rights, powers, and duties followed the role. The same individuals as actors could play different roles, each with its own legal attributes, sometimes even in the same court appearance. According to other sources, which also admit that the origin of the term is not completely clear, persona could possibly be related to the Latin verb per-sonare, literally: sounding through, with an obvious link to the above-mentioned theatrical mask.

Phenotypic trait

A phenotypic trait, or simply trait, is a distinct variant of a phenotypic characteristic of an organism; it may be either inherited or determined environmentally, but typically occurs as a combination of the two. For example, eye color is a character of an organism, while blue, brown and hazel are traits.

Definition

Phenotypic trait is the element the descriptions of individuals and groups of living creatures. Individualized biological variability (biodiversity) of each species and populations of living beings, includes all the components of individual features or individuality and group identity in morphological and anatomical, biochemical and ethological, and every other way, from the level of molecules to living communities and a higher degrees of ecological integration.

Individuals and groups differ among themselves biologically, in practically endless succession of more or less visible elements of their descriptions, which are named as trait, feature, mark, nature, characteristics, character and others. Each of these components is a description of, say, the observational nature, i.e. selected part of our vision or measuring the actual condition of the individual body or group structure.

Ampersand

The ampersand is the logogram "&", representing the conjunction word "and". It originated as a ligature of the letters et, Latin for "and".

Etymology

The word ampersand is a corruption of the phrase "and per se & (and)", meaning "and intrinsically the word and (represented by the symbol &)".

Traditionally, when reciting the alphabet in English-speaking schools, any letter that could also be used as a word in itself ("A", "I", and, at one point, "O") was repeated with the Latin expression per se ("by itself"). This habit was useful in spelling where a word or syllable was repeated after spelling; e.g. "d, o, g—dog" would be clear but simply saying "a—a" would be confusing without the clarifying "per se" added. It was also common practice to add the "&" sign at the end of the alphabet as if it were the 27th letter, pronounced as the Latin et or later in English as and. As a result, the recitation of the alphabet would end in "X, Y, Z, and per se and". This last phrase was routinely slurred to "ampersand" and the term had entered common English usage by 1837. However, in contrast to the 26 letters, the ampersand does not represent a speech sound—although other characters that were dropped from the English alphabet did, such as the Old English thorn, wynn, and eth.

Sign (album)

Sign is the seventh album by Clock DVA, released on August 3, 1993 through Contempo Records.

Track listing

All songs written and composed by Robert Baker and Adi Newton. 

Personnel

References

External links

Sign (disambiguation)

A sign is an entity which indicates another entity.

Sign may also refer to:

Music