semiotic

What it means

1. not comparableOf or relating to semiotics or to semantics.

   Applying a meme beyond its semiotic used-by date is undesirable, lowering status.

   2012, Michele Zappavigna, Discourse of Twitter and Social Media

   1 more example

   Especially when applying [the Lemon test] as a bar examiner might expect would have yielded glaringly ahistorical or politically inconvenient results, [the Supreme Court] regularly found reasons – longstanding historical practice, for example, or semiotic speculations about the social meanings of government actions to hypothetical “reasonable observers” – not to.

   2025 August 20, Richard Garnett, “The Ten Commandments and a “secular purpose””, in SCOTUSblog

2. datednot comparablemedicinesymptomalogical (of or relating to the signs or symptoms of diseases)

In a sentence

Applying a meme beyond its semiotic used-by date is undesirable, lowering status.

2012, Michele Zappavigna, Discourse of Twitter and Social Media

Where it comes from

1. Ancient Greekσημειωτικός“observant of signs”
2. Englishsemiotic

Borrowed from Ancient Greek σημειωτικός (sēmeiōtikós, “observant of signs”), ultimately derived from σῆμα (sêma, “mark, sign”). Compare semiotics.