Origin: 1655–65; < Greeksēmantikós having meaning, equivalent to sēmant(ós) marked (sēman-, base of sēmaínein to show, mark + -tos verbal adjective suffix; akin to sêma sign) + -ikos-ic
an extraordinary or unusual thing, person, or event; an exceptional example or instance.
a children's mummer's parade, as on the Fourth of July, with prizes for the best costumes.
a stew of meat, vegetables, potatoes, etc.
a gadget; dingus; thingumbob.
a printed punctuation mark (‽), available only in some typefaces, designed to combine the question mark (?) and the exclamation point (!), indicating a mixture of query and interjection, as after a rhetorical question.
an arrangement of five objects, as trees, in a square or rectangle, one at each corner and one in the middle.
1894, from Fr. sémantique, applied by Michel Bréal (1883) to the psychology of language, from Gk. semantikos "significant," from semainein "to show, signify, indicate by a sign," from sema "sign" (Doric sama).