supersignn.
/ˈsuːpəsʌɪn/, /ˈsjuːpəsʌɪn/, U.S. /ˈsupərˌsaɪn/ 1. A diacritical mark written or printed above a letter, esp. in Esperanto.
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > writing > written character > [noun] > written character not a letter > diacritic
accentOE
tittle1538
verge1555
point1614
diacritic1866
supersign1907
1907 A. Baker Amer. Esperanto Bk. 8 It will be observed that the letters bearing the supersign ˆ are pronounced ch, gh, hh, jh, sh.
1947 H. Jacob Planned Auxiliary Lang. 40 Supersigns were introduced to make Esperanto fully phonetic.
1958 J. Berry in E. Sivertsen Proc. 8th Internat. Congr. Linguists 761 The supersigns interfere with spacing and involve ‘kerning’.
2010 J. Skibell Curable Romantic xiii. 451 Our enemies claim that because of these supersigns, Esperanto can't be printed universally.
2. A combination of letters, figures, symbols, etc. forming a unit.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > language > linguistics > semantics > unit of meaning > [noun] > sign > combination of
supersign1970
1970 Jrnl. Aesthetics & Art Crit. 28 551/2 Kiemle uses line drawings of the façades of buildings..to illustrate the stepwise simplification of visual patterns through the formation of increasingly comprehensive supersigns.
1976 J. J. White in Visible Lang. 10 81 It is possible to view them as iconic ‘supersigns’; i.e., as collections or configurations of symbolic signs (viz. words).
2006 Internat. Hist. Rev. 28 400 There is a fascinating analysis of another supersign, quanli/right, where the characters chosen carried the negative connotations of power over others and selfish profit-seeking that the commentators had to bracket out.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2012; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1907