1907: consign Mar 5, 2020

In its purest sense, 'consign' simply means to mark or categorize something in a certain way: not too dissimilar form 'sign'. However, its oldest senses were religious, because while the Latin origin 'cōnsignō' just means "furnish with a seal", that seal was a sign of the cross, as with a baptism or confirmation. These days however, it tends to mean 'put in the custody of', as in 'assign'.

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