Other forms: semaphores
A semaphore is a signal worked by a moving arm. A semaphore signal, semaphore flags, the semaphore dropped.
On the railway the arm's position says stop or clear, and the design fails safe: if the wire breaks the arm falls to danger. The flag version spells letters by the angle of two arms, and it is still taught at sea for close signalling.
1nounsemaphoreA signal worked by a moving arm.
“Beside the track, the arm of the old semaphore dropped to show the line was clear.”
semaphore is a signal.
French semaphore comes from Greek sema, a sign, plus -phore, carrying.
Proto-Indo-European
*dʰyeh₂-
Ancient Greek
σῆμα — mark, sign, token
French
sémaphore
English, today
semaphore
The noun is borrowed from French sémaphore, from Ancient Greek σῆμα (“mark, sign, token”) + French -phore (from Ancient Greek -φόρος). by surface analysis, sema- + -phore. The verb is derived from the noun.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA