Meaning

noun an arbitrary sign (written or printed) that has acquired a conventional significance

noun something visible that by association or convention represents something else that is invisible

originFrom French symbole, from Latin symbolus, symbolum (“a sign, mark, token, symbol, in Late Latin also a creed”), from Ancient Greek σύμβολον (súmbolon, “a sign by which one infers something; a mark, token, badge, ticket, tally, check, a signal, watchword, outward sign”), from συμβάλλω (sumbállō, “to throw together, dash together, compare, correspond, tally, come to a conclusion”), from σύν (sún,…

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0