Indian sign
1
9.9
- noun
- Archaic
:
signo indio
- Many superstitious people believe in the power of the Indian sign.
Examples
-
Many believed that the Indian sign foretold success.
-
She hesitated, thinking the odd coincidence might be an Indian sign to wait.
-
He took it as an Indian sign to move forward.
-
Did you see the Indian signs in the forest?
-
Many people believe that a hawk flying overhead is an Indian sign of good fortune.
-
In some cultures, seeing a spider at dawn is considered an Indian sign of impending changes.
-
The appearance of a double rainbow is often viewed as an Indian sign of blessings to come.
Synonyms
∞
3.2
An event that shows something is happening or will happen
91
4.9
A sign or event that people think shows what will happen next
10
8.7
A sign that something important, often bad, will happen
2
9.9
A sign people use to guess what will happen
How Ominous
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly compositional: 'Indian' qualifies the noun 'sign', so a B1 learner who knows both words can infer this refers to a sign or omen associated with Indian (indigenous) beliefs or practices. There is no idiomatic shift or metaphorical extension beyond the literal adjective+noun combination, and this straightforward modifier relationship is cross-linguistically common.
Etymology
The phrase Indian sign may come from old stories about Native people who read small things in nature as messages. If they saw a certain bird, animal track, or other clue and acted on it, people called that an 'Indian sign', so the phrase came to mean 'an omen' or 'a sign about what to do'.