signpostn.
/ˈsʌɪnpəʊst/, U.S. /ˈsaɪnˌpoʊst/ 1. A sign mounted on a post, used to give information or directions, identify a business, etc.; (also) the post supporting such a sign.
ΘΚΠ
society > travel > aspects of travel > guidance in travel > [noun] > that which guides or leads > signpost or stone
Mercury's finger1589
signpost1597
mercurial statue1638
way-post1647
mercury1668
mercury's statue1684
mercurial stone1716
waywiser1725
guide-post1761
cross in the hands1762
fingerpost1762
guide stone1762
handpost1764
parson1785
fingerboard1793
direction-post1795
guide-board1810
signboard1829
handing-post1837
directing-post1876
society > communication > indication > that which identifies or distinguishes > signboard > [noun] > post of
signpost1711
pylon1899
1597 N. Breton Wits Trenchmour sig. F.v I..gaue a farewell to the flying Ostrich, which was the Armes of his Inkeeping, faire painted vppon the signe-post.
a1625 J. Fletcher Chances iii. i, in F. Beaumont & J. Fletcher Comedies & Trag. (1647) sig. Bbbv/2 If this geer hold, Best hang a signe-post up, to tell the Signiors, Here ye may have lewdnesse at Liverie.
1642 J. Milton Apol. Smectymnuus 7 Hung out like a toling signe-post to call passengers.
1670 Moral St. Eng. 92 A good Inn hath very seldome a bad Sign-post.
1711 J. Addison Spectator No. 28. ¶3 When did the Sheep and Dolphin ever meet, except upon a Sign-Post?
1785 W. Cowper Task iv. 483 Fell Discord,..Perch'd on the sign-post, holds with even hand Her undecisive scales.
1819 Ld. Byron Don Juan: Canto I ii. 4 [They] fill'd their sign-posts then, like Wellesley now.
1849 T. B. Macaulay Hist. Eng. I. v. 634 The signpost of the White Hart Inn served for a gallows.
1863 Ld. Lytton Ring of Amasis i. ii. iii The stretched forefinger of a common sign-post.
1937 Motor Catal. (East London Rubber Co.) 151/1 Spotlight..can be trained upon the kerb, on the road ahead, or [on] signposts.
1987 G. Carter & J. Hough Dream Season xiv. 209 The crowds surrounded us; they packed the wide steps and blanketed the street below. They shinnied up sign posts.
2004 Independent 4 Dec. (Traveller section) 4/2 Few of these streets appear to have signposts or numbers.
2. figurative. Something that acts as a guide or indicator.
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society > communication > indication > pointing out > [noun] > one who or that which
showerc1400
hand1563
fescue1648
signpost1658
fingerpost1738
indicator1819
marker1832
finger pointer1843
1658 W. Sanderson Compl. Hist. Life King Charles 124 The Gibbet..was taken away, being but a Sign-post to the memory of that Murder.
1833 T. J. Todd Bk. Anal. ii. 73 All the individual and specifical peculiarities..may serve as signposts..to direct the observer to the different cross-ways.
1889 A. Conan Doyle Micah Clarke xii. 107 We..were gazing in silence at this sign-post of death, when..a bundle of rags..began suddenly to move.
1906 H. W. Fowler & F. G. Fowler King's Eng. iii. 188 Relative clauses, uninfluenced by the position of the sign-post, remain subject to precisely the same conditions as the corresponding paratactic sentences.
1955 A. M. Lindbergh Gift from Sea vii. 120 Island-precepts,..sign-posts toward another way of living.
1961 Atlanta Constit. 17 Aug. 5 [When] in love the usual signposts that guide you to lasting and satisfying relationships are sometimes obscured.
2003 M. Bronski Pulp Friction Introd. 9 These books were the maps and the signposts..for gay men entering the half-hidden world of homosexuality.
Compounds
General attributive, objective, and appositive, as signpost dauber, signpost painter, signpost painting, signpost picture, signpost word, etc.
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1674 J. Dryden et al. Notes Empress of Morocco Pref. sig. A3v That Sign-post Painter, who was famous only for drawing Roses.__
1677 J. Dryden To Mr. Lee in N. Lee Rival Queens sig. a1v But how shou'd any Sign-post-dawber know The worth of Titian, or of Angelo?
1682 J. Dryden Medall Ep. But Sign-post painting will serve the turn to remember a Friend by.
1751 Earl of Orrery Remarks Swift (1752) 83 While there remained a sign-post painter in the world.
1779 Mirror No. 9 Those same Latin scraps,..which you sometimes hang out by way of sign-post inscription at the top of your paper.
1815 L. Simond Jrnl. Tour Great Brit. II. 216 I never saw such a collection of miserable sign-post pictures any where before.
1839 H. Martineau Deerbrook I. xvi. 171 Like the rays on a sign-post picture of the sun.__
1906 H. W. Fowler & F. G. Fowler King's Eng. iii. 184 Unemphatic ‘sign-post’ words, essential to the connexion, standing originally at the end of the sentence.
1938 L. MacNeice I crossed Minch ii. 25 A few signpost details such as plucked eyebrows and lipstick.
1988 C. Barker Cabal iv. 38 Forgotten by mapmakers and signpost writers alike.
1999 Financial Times (Nexis) 30 Mar. Poland's signpost painters have never had it so good.
Derivatives
ˈsignpostless adj. having no signpost; not marked with a signpost.
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society > travel > aspects of travel > guidance in travel > [adjective] > marked or signposted > not
fingerpostless1873
signpostless1891
1891 J. J. Hissey Across Eng. in Dog-cart v. 87 Reaching a signpost-less corner where two roads diverged, we felt by no means certain which one to take.
1962 Times 22 Feb. 14/4 The signpost-less lanes of Surrey.
1968 Economist 16 Mar. 12/2 A preposterous, unanalysable, ignorant, signpostless, meandering mess.
2005 Irish Times (Nexis) 16 Aug. 12 The charms of signpostless roads..wear off extremely quickly.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2011; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
signpostv.
/ˈsʌɪnpəʊst/, U.S. /ˈsaɪnˌpoʊst/ 1. transitive. To bring to the attention of an audience, readership, etc., often in a manner that is predictable or lacking in subtlety; to make conspicuous.
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society > communication > manifestation > manifestness > manifest [verb (transitive)] > make conspicuous
mark1533
accent1877
signpost1884
1884 E. H. Hickey in R. Browning Strafford Introd. p. vii The special beauty of certain passages should not be ‘sign-posted’, but..the poet should be left to speak for himself.
1949 Billboard 2 July 51/1 Its plot [is] fairly signposted from midway of the first act.
1976 Howard Jrnl. 15 i. 39 The different themes..could perhaps have been signposted better to make the reader's task easier.
2009 New Yorker 16 Nov. 62/1 He often appears so determined to signpost excitement..that real excitement is hard to detect.
2. transitive. To show how to get somewhere, as if by using a signpost; to direct.
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society > travel > aspects of travel > guidance in travel > show (the way) [verb (transitive)]
wisec1400
to beat out1672
signpost1895
1895 A. A. Grace Maoriland Stories 105 I shall just sign-post 'em up to the station when they come.
1988 Proc. 74th Ann. Conf. Sc. Libr. Assoc. 51 If the client could be better counselled by another agency, they were signposted to it.
2006 M. Nevitt Women & Pamphlet Culture Revolutionary Eng. p. xi Over the past few years numerous others have also signposted me in the right direction.
3.
a. transitive. To indicate (a place or route) with a signpost; to mark out with a signpost or signposts. Also with complement. Also figurative.
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1898 J. J. Hissey Over Fen & Wold xxi. 429 We were informed that we could not miss it, as it was well ‘sign-posted’, a fresh expression to us.
1901 Irish Eccl. Rec. Apr. 300 Do we reflect at all that every public-house in the country ought to be sign-posted ‘Government tax-office’.
1922 W. J. Locke Tale of Triona xxiii. 265 The road undulated..with a steeply sloping drop of thirty feet to the valley. Such spots were grimly sign-posted for motorists.
1953 X. Fielding Stronghold 57 A forbidden area metaphorically signposted ‘noli me tangere’.
1961 Notes & Queries Nov. 440/1 There are textual notes at the foot of each page, ludicrously signposted by a system of expanding alphabetical cycles.
2007 Junior Educ. June 14/2 As we set off down the motorway, brown attraction signs signposted the Royal Marines Museum.
b. transitive. To provide (a place, road, etc.) with a signpost or signposts.
ΘΚΠ
society > travel > aspects of travel > guidance in travel > show (the way) [verb (transitive)] > provide or identify with signposts
fingerpost1833
signpost1903
sign1915
1903 C. G. Harper Stage-coach & Mail I. v. 113 How uncommon it was for roads to be signposted.
1923 Daily Mail 21 May 4 Dartmoor is moderately well signposted.
1955 Times 6 Jan. 6/1 They were also signposting a ring road for through traffic avoiding the central London area.
2000 J. Goldman Dreamworld iii. 15 The highways that traverse it are straight and smooth, and all are impressively signposted.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2011; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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