Other forms: consigned, consigning, consigns
To consign is to hand something over, often for good. Consign to the flames, consigned to history, consign the goods.
The figurative use is the commoner and is nearly always final — consigned to oblivion, to the bin, to history. In shipping, to consign goods is to send them to a named recipient, and the consignee is that person. Note that the Latin means to mark with a seal, from signum, a sign.
1verbconsignTo hand something over, often for good.
“She consigned his old letters to the fire and watched them burn.”
2verbsendTo send goods to a named recipient.
“The goods were consigned to a buyer in Rotterdam.”
consign is a handing over.
It is the same sign as in consignment. To consign a thing is to sign it over, and often not to see it again.
hooks ontosign
Latin consignare is con plus signare, to mark with a seal, from signum, a sign. Sign and design come from the same mark.
Latin
cōnsignō — furnish with a seal
Middle French
consigner
English, today
consign
Built from
Middle French consigner or directly from Latin cōnsignō (“furnish with a seal”), from con- + signō (“mark, sign”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA