symbol.wiki
Sigilla
The symbol.wiki lexicon. What a symbol is, where it came from, and what people have asked it to mean. The canon is a reading. Your margin stays on this device.
The cabinet
193 marks
A
- AirHeat that does not scorch: blood, spring, thought.
- AlephAn infinity with a size. Not the same as an infinity you pray to.
- ΑΩAlpha and OmegaThe first Greek letter and the last, said of God and of Christ.
- &AmpersandA tied-together “et.” The word ampersand is a schoolroom joke that stuck.
- AnchorHope, carved where a cross would have been too loud.
- AnkhLife held out as a gift, often to the nostrils.
- AquariusTwo waves. A person pouring is the picture. The mark kept the water.
- Arecibo message1,679 bits, sent once, toward a cluster of stars.
- AriesThe first slice of the sun’s year, drawn as a ram.
- AtomA nucleus and three orbits. A picture of a teaching model, not of an atom.
B
- BaguaEight arrangements of solid and broken lines. A system of signs, not a logo.
- BaphometA name extracted under torture, and a goat drawn centuries later.
- BinaryTwo digits. Every later machine script is a reader of them.
- BiohazardA mark chosen because people would remember it and because it did not already mean anything.
- Black sun with raysThe sun character U+2600. Not a clear-sky forecast, and not the alchemical sun.
C
- CaduceusHermes’ staff: messages, trade, borders, and the road of the dead.
- Calm windA circle and no staff. The wind at the station was calm. Not a clear-sky icon.
- CancerA crab, and the sign where the sun used to turn.
- CapricornA goat and a fish sharing one body. The glyph keeps both.
- Celtic crossA Christian cross with a ring, cut in stone. Not a prehistoric sun-cult logo.
- Chi-RhoA monogram that became a battle standard.
- Civil DefenseThe letters C and D in a triangle and a circle. A program’s face, then a relic.
- CladdaghTwo hands, a heart, a crown. Love, friendship, loyalty — and a legend.
- Clear nightA forecast icon for an expected clear sky after dark. Not the moon, and not a sunny day.
- Clear skyA forecast icon for an expected open sky. Not the alchemical sun, and not a clear night.
- Cloud characterThe cloud character U+2601. Not an overcast forecast and not a sky-cover circle.
- Cloud with lightningU+1F329, lightning and a cloud. Not a thunderstorm forecast, and not rain.
- Cloud with rainU+1F327 CLOUD WITH RAIN. The character people paste instead of a forecast. It is still a character.
- Cloud with snowU+1F328 CLOUD WITH SNOW. Not a snow forecast, and not a snow shower.
- Cloudy and overcastForecast icons for a covered sky. Cloudy and overcast are not the same row, and neither is rain.
- Cold frontA line with triangles in the direction of motion. Cold air is advancing. The color is a publisher’s aid.
- CrossTwo lines, and for Christians the particular death they say turned.
- Cross of Saint PeterPeter’s cross, turned over. The devil’s version is a later story about that story.
D
- DeltaA triangle that is a letter. Change, in a mathematician’s hand.
- DharmachakraA wheel set turning, with a hub that does not.
- Doomsday ClockA clock face used as a judgment. Midnight is the catastrophe. The hands are a decision.
- Double-headed eagleOne bird, two heads. An empire’s way of saying it looks both ways.
- DrizzleA forecast icon for very small, close-set drops. Not light rain, and not mist.
- DrylineScallops facing the moist air. A moisture boundary, not a cold front.
- DustA forecast icon for dust in the air. Not haze, and not a dust storm at the station.
- Dust stormDust storm or sandstorm as weather that is happening. Not the milder dust forecast, and not haze.
E
- EarthWeight, melancholy, and the body that remains.
- Elder FutharkAn alphabet for a language. Not a pack of personality runes.
- Endless knotA line with no start, so nothing in it stands alone.
- EnsōOne brushstroke, usually left unfinished.
- EqualsTwo parallels of one length, because nothing is more equal than that.
- Evil eyeA look that harms, and a glass eye that looks back.
- Eye of HorusAn eye taken apart, restored, and used as a measure.
- Eye of ProvidenceA claim that you are seen. The dollar bill did not invent it.
- Eye of RaThe sun’s eye, which leaves in fury and has to be brought back.
F
- Fallout shelterThree triangles in a circle, meaning a place rated to keep fallout out.
- FireHeat that rises, and the temper called choleric.
- Fleur-de-lisA heraldic lily. France wore it. So did Mary. So did a city.
- Flower of lifeEvery circle born on the edge of another.
- Flying saucerA journalist’s phrase for a motion, which the public turned into a shape.
- FogA forecast icon for fog. Not mist, not haze, and not the fog character.
- Fog characterU+1F32B FOG, the character. Not the fog forecast, and not mist.
- Freezing rainA forecast icon for rain that freezes on contact. Not sleet, and not ordinary rain.
- Funnel cloudAn observing category for a funnel. Not a tornado emoji, and not a thunderstorm icon by itself.
G
H
- HailA forecast icon for hail. Not snow, and not sleet.
- HamsaAn open hand against the evil eye.
- HazeA forecast icon for haze. Not fog, not mist, and not smoke.
- HeartA suit of cards that became the picture of love. Not a diagram of the organ.
- Heptapod BCircular logograms made for a film about a language that is not a line.
- HexagonSix equal sides. Bees use it. A storm on Saturn shows it. Screens default to it.
- Hierocles’ circlesA person as nested rings, from the mind out to the whole human race. The work is to pull the outer rings in.
- High pressureAn H for a high-pressure center. The letter is the symbol. Color is extra.
- House of ElA shield on a chest. An initial, later said to be a word.
- Hydrogen lineA spin-flip of the smallest atom, used as a ruler for strangers.
I
J
K
L
- LabrysA blade that faces two ways, and a cult object that became a banner.
- LambdaThe eleventh Greek letter. A shield, a wavelength, and, much later, a game.
- LeoA lion on the ecliptic. The tail in the glyph is the identifier.
- LibraScales, set where the year balances — and once the scorpion’s claws.
- LingamA mark of Shiva that refuses a face.
- Looped squareA square with loops at the corners. A monument sign, then a key.
- LotusWhat rises clean from the mud it grew in.
- Low pressureAn L for a low-pressure center. Not a rain icon, and not a cold front.
- LumonA fictional corporation’s wordmark. The series gives it a bottle.
M
- Map precipitationRain or snow painted on a map as an area or a word. Not a rain icon, and not a front.
- MarsIron’s mark: a blade’s metal, and later a sex.
- Memento moriRemember that you have to die. The oldest complete picture of it is a level, a skull, and a wheel.
- MenorahSeven lights on one tree, and they have to be tended.
- MercuryThe go-between. Metal, planet, principle, and a god who travels.
- MistA forecast icon for mist. Thinner than fog, and not drizzle.
- MjölnirA hammer that returns, and that hallows.
- Möbius stripA strip with a half-twist. One side. One edge. A dated invention.
- MonolithA rectangular solid. The proportion is the whole of the design.
- MoonWhat changes on a schedule, and still returns.
- Mushroom cloudThe shape of a nuclear explosion after the camera made it a symbol.
- MythosaurA skull emblem from a comic, later a helmet, later a television plot.
N
O
P
- Partly cloudyA forecast icon for sun and cloud together. Not overcast, and not a station-model sky circle.
- Peace signA designed mark, with an author, a day, and a brief.
- PentagramFive lines in one stroke. The doctrines came later, and they disagree.
- Philosopher’s stoneNot a rock. The name of the goal, and a diagram of a problem.
- PhoenixA bird that burns and is the same bird after.
- PiHow many diameters fit around a circle. The letter came later, from a printer’s book.
- Pioneer plaqueA metal card bolted to a machine, written for a reader who is not from here.
- PiscesTwo fish tied by a cord. Not the Christian ichthys.
- Planet EarthThe floor of the old cosmos, given a sign only after the wanderers had theirs.
- PlutoA monogram for Percival Lowell that outlived the category the planet was put in.
- Power symbolA one breaking a zero. It means standby, not off.
- Present weatherThe sign plotted beside a station when weather is occurring. Not a forecast icon, and not all one hundred codes.
- Pressure tendencyHow pressure changed in the last three hours. Not the sea-level pressure code, and not a front.
R
- Radiation trefoilA mark for a source that can injure you without looking like fire.
- Radical signThe check that asks what number, times itself, makes this one.
- RainA forecast icon for rain expected in a period. Not a shower, not drizzle, and not the station-model sign.
- Rain showerA forecast icon for rain that starts and ends. Not steady rain, and not a thunderstorm.
- RainbowU+1F308 RAINBOW. A character for a bow, not a forecast icon and not a rain report.
- Rebel starbirdA crested bird-shape for a fictional rebellion. A cog, in the same films, is the other side.
- RecyclingThree arrows chasing on a one-sided loop.
- RidgeElongated higher pressure. The zigzag is a reading aid, not a WMO code.
- RobotA word from a play about forced labor. The tin man came after the word.
- RocketA pointed body and fins. A weapon’s outline, later a toy’s.
- Rod of AsclepiusOne serpent, one staff. The sign a hospital ought to mean.
S
- SagittariusAn arrow. The centaur is the story. The mark is the weapon.
- SaltWhat the fire cannot talk out of staying.
- SaturnWeight, time, and the stage of the work you cannot skip.
- ScorpioA scorpion. The glyph keeps the sting so you do not read it as Virgo.
- §Section signThe mark that means “section,” built like two S letters.
- Seed of lifeSeven circles: a center, and the ring that exhausts it.
- ShinA letter. The priestly blessing makes a hand read as that letter.
- Sky coverThe filled circle on a station model. More ink means more of the sky was covered.
- SleetA forecast icon publishers label sleet. Not snow, not freezing rain, and not one universal mixture.
- SmileyA face drawn for a morale campaign, for forty-five dollars.
- SmokeA forecast icon for smoke. Not haze, and not fog.
- SnowA forecast icon for expected snow. Not a snow shower, not sleet, and not a snowman.
- Snow showerA forecast icon for snow that starts and stops. Not a steady snow icon.
- SnowflakeU+2744 SNOWFLAKE, a dingbat. Not a snow forecast, and not a snow shower.
- SnowmanU+2603 SNOWMAN. A figure, not a snow forecast and not a snow shower.
- Squall lineA line of thunderstorms. The ticks on this drawing are a reading aid, not a required ornament.
- Standard Galactic AlphabetA substitution alphabet for jokes in a game, later a table in another game.
- Star and crescentA lunar blade and a star — a dynasty’s badge that went traveling.
- Star of DavidTwo triangles locked, asked to stand for a people.
- Starfleet deltaOne ship’s patch that became the fleet’s. A trademark. Not a NASA arrowhead.
- Station modelThe whole observation plot. Sky in the circle, wind on the barb, weather only if something is falling or the air is thick.
- Stationary frontA front that is not moving. Ornaments sit on opposite sides of the line.
- SulfurWhat burns, and what gives a thing its character.
- SunThe center, and the metal that does not tarnish.
- Sun behind cloudU+26C5 sun behind a cloud. Not the partly cloudy forecast, though it resembles one.
- SunriseA weather-app mark for the time the sun is expected to rise. Not a clear-sky forecast.
- SunsetA weather-app mark for the time the sun is expected to set. Not a sky condition.
- SvastikaA bent cross that meant well-being, and was later occupied.
T
- TaurusA bull on the ecliptic, and a circle with horns in type.
- TesseractA cube extended one dimension further. The drawing is a shadow of that.
- יהוהTetragrammatonFour letters. In Jewish practice, not a word you sound out.
- The four virtuesFour names for one good character. Later centuries put an object in each hand.
- The StoaA painted porch in Athens. The school is named after the building, not after a badge.
- ThereforeThe hinge between a reason and the line that follows.
- Thunder cloud and rainU+26C8, a cloud with thunder and rain in the name. Not a thunderstorm forecast icon.
- ThunderstormA forecast icon for thunder and lightning. Not a decorative bolt, and not ordinary rain.
- Tornado characterU+1F32A TORNADO. A character. Not a funnel-cloud report and not a warning polygon.
- Tree of lifeTen stations of emanation, and a way back up.
- TriquetraThree vesicae locked, so that parting them destroys the drawing.
- TriskeleThree spirals that share a center and refuse to be still.
- TroughElongated lower pressure and a wind shift. Not a front. The dash is a common habit, not a second alphabet.
U
- UmbrellaThe umbrella character U+2602. A thing you carry, not a rain forecast.
- Umbrella with rain dropsU+2614, an umbrella and drops. Not a WWIS rain icon, and not drizzle.
- UranusThe first planet found by telescope, and the one with two glyphs that will not agree.
- USB tridentA branch for a bus. People noticed that it looks like a trident.
V
- ValknutThree triangles locked, near what may be Odin, and we do not have the gloss.
- VegvísirA stave against getting lost. Not a Viking-age compass.
- VenusCopper’s mark, long before it was a gender icon.
- Vesica piscisTwo equal circles, each through the other’s center. A third shape appears.
- VirgoA woman with a sheaf. The glyph is an M that learned to write.
- VisibilityThe reported seeing distance at the station. A number, not a forecast fog icon.
- Voyager Golden Record coverInstructions for a disc: how to play it, and where the player lives.
W
- Warm frontA line with half-moons in the direction of motion. Warmer air is advancing.
- WaterWhat sinks, gathers, and is felt before it is argued.
- Weyland-YutaniA fictional company’s mark. The first film and the second film do not use the same one.
- Wheel of FortuneA wheel that puts the crowned on the bottom. The Stoics told you not to care. The picture stayed anyway.
- WindA forecast icon for expected wind. Not a wind barb, and not the wind-face character.
- Wind barbStaff, barbs, and pennants: where the wind came from, and how fast. Not a forecast wind icon.
- Wind faceU+1F32C WIND FACE. A face blowing wind. Not a wind barb and not a windy forecast icon.
- Wow! signalA strong narrowband spike, circled in red ink, and never repeated.