semaphore

Такође погледајте: Semaphore и sémaphore

Енглески

WOTD – 22 February 2020

Etymology

Шаблон:Wikipedia The noun is borrowed from Француски sémaphore, from Антички Грчки σῆμα (sêma, “mark, sign, token”) (from Proto-Indo-European *dʰyeh₂- (“to notice”)) + Француски -phore (from Грчки -φόρος (-fóros, suffix indicating a bearer or carrier), from φέρω (phérō, “to bear, carry”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰer- (“to bear, carry”)).

The verb is derived from the noun.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(кључ): /ˈsɛm.əˌfɔː/

• Audio (RP):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(кључ): /ˈsɛm.əˌfɔɹ/
• Hyphenation: se‧ma‧phore

Noun

semaphore (countable and uncountable, plural semaphores)

1. Any equipment used for visual signalling by means of flags, lights, or mechanically moving arms, which are used to represent letters of the alphabet, or words.

   • Шаблон:RQ:Clarke His Natural Life
   • 1879, Albert J[ames] Myer, “Semaphores”, in A Manual of Signals for the Use of Signal Officers in the Field, […], Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, →OCLC, pages 193–194:

     When, on long lines of stations, towers or other structures are used, it may be necessary, for greater speed, to sometimes employ semaphores for aerial telegraphy. [...] Semaphores consist of a post with arms. The arms starting with about three feet in length, to be increased one foot for every mile. These arms are made movable by ropes passing over wheels or pulleys, and moved by a crank below.

   • Шаблон:RQ:Kipling Land & Sea Tales
   • 1968, F[rits] van der Gragt, Europe's Greatest Tramway Network: Tramways in the Rhein–Ruhr Area of Germany (Uitgaven van de Nederlandsche Vereeniging van Belangstellenden in het Spoor- en Tramwegwezen [Publications by the Dutch Association of People Interested in the Rail- and Tramway System]; 4), Leiden: E[vert] J[an] Brill, →OCLC, page 128:

     Travelling by the rural tramway was quite an experience; the small car would bounce about on the bad track like a ship in a rough sea; at some places, there would even be genuine railway semaphore signals controlling the trams.

   • 1995, Sten Thore, “Messages, Images, and Robots”, in The Diversity, Complexity, and Evolution of High Tech Capitalism, Boston, Mass., Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, →ISBN, page 27:

     Innovations in the communications industry often means that existing media become obsolete. There are no semaphores any longer. (Semaphores were used by the French revolutionary armies in the late 1790's to relay information to Paris about their victories in the Savoy.)

   • 2004 септембар 25, Terry Pratchett, Going Postal (A Discworld Novel; 33), London: Doubleday, →ISBN; republished London: Corgi Books, Transworld Publishers, 2005 (2014 printing), →ISBN, pages 149–150:

     He had got used to the clacks towers now. Sometimes it seemed as though every roof sprouted one. Most were the new shutter boxes installed by the Grand Trunk Company, but old-fashioned arm semaphores and even signal flags were still well in evidence.

2. (figurative) A visual system for transmitting information using the above equipment; especially, by means of two flags held one in each hand, using an alphabetic and numeric code based on the position of the signaller's arms; flag semaphore.

   • Шаблон:RQ:Doyle Memories and Adventures
   • 2006, Erinn Banting, Inventing the Telephone (Breakthrough Inventions), New York, N.Y., Toronto, Ont.: Crabtree Publishing Company, →ISBN, page 5, column 2:

     A system of communication called semaphore uses flags or flashing lights to send messages over distances. [...] Code flags are less common today but are sometimes used by ships that have lost radio contact.

   • 2008, Katherine Vaz, “Lisbon Story”, in Our Lady of the Artichokes: And Other Portuguese-American Stories, Lincoln, Neb., London: University of Nebraska Press, →ISBN, page 115:

     As always in Lisbon, my heart throbbed semaphores to call Tónio.

   • 2008, Gene Weingarten, “Remembering Harry”, in Old Dogs are the Best Dogs, New York, N.Y.: Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, page 4:

     Consider the wagging tail, the most basic semaphore in dog/human communication.

   • 2010, Jonathan Balcombe, “Communicating”, in Second Nature: The Inner Lives of Animals, New York, N.Y.: St. Martin’s Press, →ISBN, part II (Coexistence), page 84:

     Semaphore—a system of communicating over long distances by holding the arms or two flags in certain positions—is not a very efficient mode of communication for us. But for the Panamanian golden frog, semaphore is just the ticket. These frogs live near waterfalls, where the constant din renders vocal communication useless. [...] When they want to get someone else's attention, they flash pale patches of skin on their limbs or the webs between their toes.

   • 2014, Bernard F. Dick, “Worlds Elsewhere”, in The President’s Ladies: Jane Wyman and Nancy Davis, Jackson, Miss.: University Press of Mississippi, →ISBN, page 215:

     For a half-hour episode, "The Long Shadow" was unusually complex, a web spun out of deception and equivocation that untangles when [Ronald] Reagan, transmitting his customized semaphores of concern (ridged brow, pursed lips, pained eyes), divulges the truth: [...]

3. (computing) A bit, token, fragment of code, or some other mechanism which is used to restrict access to a shared function or device to a single process at a time, or to synchronize and coordinate events in different processes.

   The thread increments the semaphore to prevent other threads from entering the critical section at the same time.

   • 1996, P. Theodoropoulos, G. Manis, P. Tsanakas, G. Papakonstantinou, “Extending Synchronization PVM Mechanisms”, in Arndt Bode, Jack Dongarra, Thomas Ludwig, and Vaidy Sunderam, editors, Parallel Virtual Machine – EuroPVM ’96: Third European PVM Conference, Munich, Germany, October 7–9, 1996: Proceedings (Lecture Notes in Computer Science; 1156), Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag, →ISBN, →ISSN, page 315:

     Several synchronization techniques have been proposed and many of them have been adopted by parallel and distributed operating systems or parallel programming platforms. [...] Semaphores represent another synchronization technique that is mainly used by traditional stand-alone operating systems.

   • 2003, David Sklar, Adam Trachtenberg, “Variables”, in Paula Ferguson, editor, PHP Cookbook, Sebastopol, Calif.: O’Reilly & Associates, →ISBN, section 5.6 (Sharing Variables across Processes), page 124:

     A semaphore makes sure that the different processes don't step on each other's toes when they access the shared memory segment. Before a process can use the segment, it needs to get control of the semaphore. When it's done with the segment, it releases the semaphore for another process to grab.

   • 2012, Timothy Mangan, “L1/L2/L3 Memory Cache”, in Windows System Performance through Caching: 15 Ways Caching Improves System Performance (Inside the OS Series), Canton, Mass.: TMurgent Technologies, →ISBN, page 22:

     It is up to the programmer to ensure that if one thread updates multiple dependent memory locations (for example, writing a string, or updating a table) that another thread might read, some protection is put in place to ensure that the two threads don't update and read at the same time. [...] Several techniques are used by programmers to prevent this, including locks, semaphores, and mutexes.

Derived terms

• flag semaphore
• semaphore plant
• semaphore signal
• semaphoretical
• semaphoretic (obsolete)
• semaphoric
• semaphorin
• semaphorist

 

Translations

equipment used for visual signalling

• Finnish: opastin (fi)
• Romanian: молим додајте овај превод ако можете
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Ukrainian: молим додајте овај превод ако можете

visual system for transmitting information

• Armenian: լուսազդանշան (hy) (lusazdanšan)
• Catalan: semàfor (ca) m
• Czech: semafor (cs) m
• Dutch: semafoor (nl) m
• Finnish: opastin (fi), opastinjärjestelmä
• Hebrew: סמפור (he) m (semafor)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Hungarian: szemafor (hu)
• Italian: semaforo (it)
• Romanian: молим додајте овај превод ако можете
• Russian: семафо́р (ru) m (semafór)
• Serbo-Croatian: се̏мафо̄р m, sȅmafōr (sh) m
• Spanish: semáforo (es)

visual system for transmitting information using flags

• Dutch: semafoor (nl) m
• Finnish: lippuviittoilu
• Hebrew: סמפור (he) m (semafor)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Italian: semaforo marittimo m
• Romanian: молим додајте овај превод ако можете
• Japanese: 手旗信号 (てばたしんがう, tebata shingō)

mechanism used to restrict access to a shared function or device to a single process at a time

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: молим додајте овај превод ако можете

• Czech: semafor (cs) m
• Dutch: semafoor (nl) m
• Finnish: semafori (fi)
• French: sémaphore (fr) m
• German: Semaphor m
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Greek: σηματοφόρος m (simatofóros)
• Hebrew: סמפור (he) m (semafor)
• Icelandic: veif f
• Japanese: セマフォ (semafo)
• Russian: молим додајте овај превод ако можете
• Swedish: semafor (sv) c
• Turkish: semafor (tr)

Verb

semaphore

1. (transitive, intransitive, figurative) To signal using, or as if using, a semaphore, with the implication that it is done nonverbally.
   • 1907, United States Hydrographic Office, “Distant Signals”, in International Code of Signals, American edition, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, →OCLC, part III, page 539:

     The person intending to Semaphore will make the International Code Signal VOX (I am going to Semaphore to you), and set his Semaphore at the alphabetical sign [...] with the Indicator out, and wait until the person to whom the Semaphore signal is to be made hoists his answering pennant close up. [...] The British method of Semaphoring by flags held in the hand which is shown in plate VIII is exactly the same as the British Movable Semaphore system, which has just been explained, the positions of the apparatus which denote the letters, numbers, and special signs being, it will be seen, identical in each case, and the only difference being in the apparatus employed.

   • Шаблон:RQ:London Hearts of Three
   • 1990, Peter Hopkirk, “The Climactic Years”, in The Great Game: On Secret Service in High Asia, London: John Murray, →ISBN; republished Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 2001, →ISBN, page 478:

     Minutes later, unseen by the defenders, he semaphored back across the valley that he was going to make a fresh attempt.

   • 2008, Elizabeth Elwood, “Gilda Died for Love”, in A Black Tie Affair: And Other Mystery Stories, Lincoln, Neb.: iUniverse, →ISBN, page 113:

     Near the concession stand on the east side of the park, she saw two familiar figures sitting on a bench in the shade of a large oak. Her father hailed her, wildly semaphoring with his hot dog.

   • 2011, Heather Menzies Jones, chapter 25, in NanoMan, [Morrisville, N.C.]: Lulu.com, →ISBN, page 133:

     He can't hear what they're saying, but Jake is making angry movements with his hands and his taut posture semaphores, even to Daniel, his distinct displeasure.

Derived terms

• semaphoring (adjective)

Translations

to signal using, or as if using, a semaphore

• Dutch: signaleren (nl), seinen (nl)
• Finnish: viittoa (fi)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Spanish: semáforo (es) m

Further reading

• semaphore на Википедији.Википедији

Anagrams

• mesohepar ^{(alphagram aeehmoprs)}