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token coin

 - 2 dictionary results

to⋅ken

[toh-kuhn]
–noun
1. something serving to represent or indicate some fact, event, feeling, etc.; sign: Black is a token of mourning.
2. a characteristic indication or mark of something; evidence or proof: Malnutrition is a token of poverty.
3. a memento; souvenir; keepsake: The seashell was a token of their trip.
4. something used to indicate authenticity, authority, etc.; emblem; badge: Judicial robes are a token of office.
5. Also called token coin. a stamped piece of metal, issued as a limited medium of exchange, as for bus fares, at a nominal value much greater than its commodity value.
6. anything of only nominal value similarly used, as paper currency.
7. an item, idea, person, etc., representing a group; a part as representing the whole; sample; indication.
8. Logic, Linguistics. a particular instance of a word, symbol, expression, sentence, or the like: A printed page might have twenty tokens of the single type-word “and.” Compare type (def. 8).
–verb (used with object)
9. to be a token of; signify; symbolize.
–adjective
10. serving as a token: a token gift; a token male on an all-female staff.
11. slight; perfunctory; minimal: token resistance.
12. by the same token,
a. in proof of which.
b. moreover; furthermore: She has a talent as a painter, and by the same token has a sharp eye for detail.
13. in token of, as a sign of; in evidence of: a ring in token of his love.

Origin:
bef. 900; ME; OE tāc(e)n; c. G Zeichen, ON teikn sign, mark. See teach


10. symbolic.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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Word Origin & History

token 
O.E. tacen "sign, symbol, evidence" (related to tæcan "show, explain, teach"), from P.Gmc. *taiknan (cf. O.S. tekan, O.N. teikn "zodiac sign, omen, token," O.Fris., M.Du. teken, Du. teken, O.H.G. zeihhan, Ger. zeichen, Goth. taikn "sign, token"), from PIE base *deik- "to show" (see teach). Meaning "coin-like piece of stamped metal" is first recorded 1598. The adj. meaning "nominal" is from 1915, from the noun. In integration sense, first recorded 1960; tokenism is first recorded 1962. Original sense of "evidence" is retained in by the same token (1463), originally "introducing a corroborating evidence."
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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