Abstract

This article traces the comparative fortunes of the terms ‘semiology’ and ‘semiotics,’ with the associated expressions ‘science of signs’ and ‘doctrine of signs,’ from their original appearance in English dictionaries in the 1800s through their adoption in the 1900s as focal points in discussions of signs that flourished after pioneering writings by Charles Sanders Peirce and Ferdinand de Saussure. The greater popularity of ‘semiology’ by mid-century was compromised by Thomas Sebeok's seminal proposal of signs at work among all animals, and Umberto Eco's work marked a ‘tipping point’ where the understanding associated with ‘semiotics’ came to prevail over the glottocentrism associated with ‘semiology.’