signifiest

Verb

signify (third-person singular simple present signifies, present participle signifying, simple past and past participle signified)

1. To create a sign out of something.
2. To give (something) a meaning or an importance.
3. To show one’s intentions with a sign etc.; to indicate, announce, or portend.
   • I’ll to the king; and signify to him / That thus I have resign’d my charge to you.c. 1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Richard the Third: […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
4. To mean; to betoken.
   • Life’s […] a tale / Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, / Signifying nothing.c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...
5. To make a difference; to matter (in negative or interrogative expressions).
   • To be but in the company of those we love, satisfies us: it does not signify whether we speak to ’em or not, whether we think on them or on indifferent things. To be near ’em is all.1699, uncredited translator, “Of the Heart”, in The Characters, or, The Manners of the Age, London: John Bullord, translation of original by Jean de La Bruyère, page 84