signature, adj.

[Charles C Doyle]

Perhaps "signature" in the sense of 'celebrated' comes about by some confusion with the adj. "signal"?

--Charlie

________________________________________
From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] on behalf of Jonathan Lighter [wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM]
Sent: Thursday, March 03, 2011 3:21 PM

Surely OED contains the wildly popular "signature, adj. personally
distinctive:  _another of the President's signature, low-key performances_

No? Well, in that case, it doesn't have this additional sense either:

2009 Gordon Berg in _America's Civil War_ XXII (Nov.) 36: In one of the
war's most signature moments in one of its most documented battles:
Chickamauga.

It can only mean "celebrated."   Because the moment itself - the defense of
key hill position - was hardly "personally distinctive."  But it did become
famous.

Ordinarily there's someone or something identified in the context as
imparting the "signature" quality. In the above ex., there's nobody and
nothing.

JL

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