σῆμα

• σᾶμᾰ (sâma) — Doric
• σῆμ’ (sêm’) — apocopic

From Proto-Indo-European *dʰyéh₂mn̥, from *dʰyeh₂- (“to notice”) (though Beekes is skeptical of the semantics). Cognate with Sanskrit ध्यायति (dhyāyati, “think of, imagine”), ध्यान (dhyāna, “meditation”).^[1]

σῆμᾰ • (sêma) n (genitive σήμᾰτος); third declension

1. mark, sign, token
   • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 10.466
   • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 23.326
   • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Odyssey 19.250
   • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 23.455
   • 638 BCE – 558 BCE, Solon, Collected Works 25.4
   • 680 BCE – 645 BCE, Archilochus, 49
   1. a sign from the gods, an omen, portent
      • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 2.353
      • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 8.171
      • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 13.244
      • 522 BCE – 443 BCE, Pindar, Pythian Ode 4.355
      • 525 BCE – 455 BCE, Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound 498, (compare The Libation Bearers 259)
      • 497 BCE – 405 BCE, Sophocles, Fragments 379
      • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Odyssey 20.111
   2. a sign to begin something, watchword, signal, banner
      • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Odyssey 21.231
      • 750 BCE – 650 BCE, Hesiod, Works and Days 448
      • c. 440 BCE, Euripides, Rhesus 12
      • 408 BCE, Euripides, The Phoenician Women 1377
   3. the sign by which a grave is known, mound, cairn, barrow
      • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 2.814
      • 750 BCE – 650 BCE, Hesiod, The Shield of Heracles 477
      • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Odyssey 2.222
      • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Odyssey 11.75
      • 522 BCE – 443 BCE, Pindar, Olympian Ode 10.30
      • 460 BCE – 420 BCE, Herodotus, Histories 1.93
      • 460 BCE – 420 BCE, Herodotus, Histories 4.72
      • 460 BCE – 395 BCE, Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War 2.34
      • 411 BCE, Aristophanes, Thesmophoriazusae 886–888
      • 380 BCE, Plato, Gorgias 493A
   4. a mark to show the case of a quoit or javelin
      • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 23.843
      • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Odyssey 8.192
      • Dion., P. 18
   5. a token by which one's identity or commission was certified
      • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 6.176–178
      • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 7.189
      • 467 BCE, Aeschylus, Seven Against Thebes 387
      • 467 BCE, Aeschylus, Seven Against Thebes 404
      • 458 BCE, Euripides, Electra 456
      • 497 BCE – 405 BCE, Sophocles, Women of Trachis 614
   6. a constellation
      • 424 BCE, Euripides, Hecuba 1273
      • 497 BCE – 405 BCE, Sophocles, Fragments 379

• σημαίνω (sēmaínō)
• σημεῖον (sēmeîon)
• ⇒ French: sémaphore (modern coinage)

• “σῆμα”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• σῆμα in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
• σῆμα in Cunliffe, Richard J. (1924) A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect: Expanded Edition, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, published 1963
• Woodhouse, S. C. (1910) English–Greek Dictionary: A Vocabulary of the Attic Language‎, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Limited.
  • armorial bearings idem, page 40.
  • badge idem, page 59.
  • barrow idem, page 64.
  • blazonry idem, page 82.
  • cemetery idem, page 122.
  • coat idem, page 141.
  • countersign idem, page 178.
  • crest idem, page 184.
  • device idem, page 220.
  • emblem idem, page 267.
  • escutcheon idem, page 282.
  • figure-head idem, page 319.
  • grave idem, page 371.
  • indication idem, page 432.
  • insignia idem, page 444.
  • landmark idem, page 475.
  • mound idem, page 543.
  • omen idem, page 572.
  • password idem, page 597.
  • portent idem, page 627.
  • sepulchre idem, page 754.
  • sign idem, page 774.
  • signal idem, page 775.
  • star idem, page 811.
  • symbol idem, page 850.
  • tomb idem, page 880.
  • watch-word idem, page 966.
• Sihler, Andrew L. (1995) New Comparative Grammar of Greek and Latin, Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, →ISBN