the.com/signpost
a mute prophet that knows where you're going better than you do
means A post bearing a sign that gives directions, distances, or warnings to travelers — or, figuratively, any clear indicator of what's coming.
from A plain compound of two old workhorses: "sign," from Latin "signum" (a mark or token), which entered English through French, and "post," from Latin "postis" (an upright stake or doorpost). Put them together and you get exactly what it says — a sign on a post. The figurative sense, an event that points the way ahead, grew naturally out of the literal roadside object.
- finger origin
- early ones were carved hands pointing the way
- toll era
- 1700s England mandated them on turnpike roads
- furthest sign
- some list towns thousands of miles away
- literary job
- now mostly metaphors for life's crossroads
mile marker 420 i-70 — famous cannabis joke location on colorado interstate, frequently vandalized and replaced
directional sign death valley — the lowest elevation marker at 282 feet below sea level in california's death valley