insignia

insignia

See also: insígnia

English

WOTD – 12 January 2010

Insignia of the Soviet/Russian space station Mir.

Etymology

From Latin īnsīgnia, nominative plural of īnsīgne (“emblem, token, symbol”). Doublet of ensign.

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /ɪnˈsɪɡ.ni.ə/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

Noun

insignia (plural insignias or insignia)

1. A patch or other object that indicates a person's official or military rank, or membership in a group or organization.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:badge

   • 2019 March 18, Steven Pifer, Five years after Crimea’s illegal annexation, the issue is no closer to resolution‎, The Center for International Security and Cooperation:

     The little green men were clearly professional soldiers by their bearing, carried Russian weapons, and wore Russian combat fatigues, but they had no identifying insignia. Vladimir Putin originally denied they were Russian soldiers; that April, he confirmed they were.

2. A symbol or token of personal power, status, or office, or of an official body of government or jurisdiction.
   • 1826, Mary Shelley, The Last Man, Part 1, chapter 6:

     The former Protector tendered him the oaths, and presented him with the insignia of office, performing the ceremonies of installation.

3. (figurative) A mark or token by which anything is known.
   • 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], Francesca Carrara. […], volume III, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), OCLC 630079698, page 80:

     But if autumn wear the insignia of nature's royalty, its purple and gold, in only the shaded lane or the green field with its one or two old trees, what is its more than eastern pomp in a wooded empire like the New Forest!

   • 2006, P. Goodrich, The Laws of Love: A Brief Historical and Practical Manual, page 49:

     Rule 23: “The stress of love makes it hard to eat and sleep.” To these empirical laws we can add the various other insignia of love.

Synonyms

• insigne (dated)

Translations

a patch or other object that indicates rank or membership

Armenian: շքանշան (hy) (škʿanšan) Bulgarian: отличителен знак m (otličitelen znak) Catalan: insígnia (ca) Chinese: Mandarin: 徽章 (zh) (huīzhāng), 識別標誌／识别标志 (shìbié biāozhì) Esperanto: insigno (eo), atributo (eo) Finnish: arvomerkki French: insigne (fr) m Hebrew: סמל זיהוי‎ m (sémel zihúy) Japanese: 階級章 (かいきゅうしょう, kaikyūshō) Occitan: insígnia f Portuguese: insígnia (pt) f, distintivo (pt) m Russian: знак отли́чия (ru) m (znak otlíčija), знак разли́чия m (znak razlíčija) Spanish: insignia (es) f

symbol or token of power, status, or office

Arabic: please add this translation if you can Chinese: Mandarin: 勛章／勋章 (zh) (xūnzhāng) (medal, decoration), 符號／符号 (zh) (fúhào) Dutch: insigne (nl) n Esperanto: insigno (eo) Finnish: tunnus (fi) French: insigne (fr) m German: Insigne (de) n, Signum n, Abzeichen (de) n Hebrew: סמל‎ (he) m (sémel) Hungarian: jelvény (hu), rangjelzés (hu) Italian: please add this translation if you can Japanese: しるし (ja) (shirushi), 記章 (ja) (きしょう, kishō) Polish: insygnium (pl) n Portuguese: insígnia (pt) f, distintivo (pt) m Russian: эмбле́ма (ru) f (embléma), значо́к (ru) m (značók), о́рден (ru) m (órden) (order), меда́ль (ru) f (medálʹ) (medal) Serbo-Croatian: insignija f Spanish: distintivo (es) m Thai: please add this translation if you can

Noun

1. plural of insignium
2. plural of insigne

Further reading

• insignia on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

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Galician

Noun

insignia f (plural insignias)

1. pin, badge

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Latin

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /inˈsiɡ.ni.a/, [ĩːˈs̠ɪŋniä]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /inˈsiɲ.ɲi.a/, [inˈsiɲːiä]

Noun

īnsignia

1. nominative/accusative/vocative plural of īnsigne

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Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /inˈsiɡnja/ [ĩnˈsiɣ̞.nja]
• Rhymes: -iɡnja
• Syllabification: in‧sig‧nia

Noun

insignia f (plural insignias)

1. badge, insignia

Derived terms

• buque insignia

 

Further reading

• “insignia”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014