Consigning

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. The process of transferring ownership or responsibility of items to another entity for sale or storage purposes
2. The act of delegating goods or property to someone else for the purpose of management or reselling
3. The action of assigning or delivering items to another person for the intent of resale or safe keeping

Etymology: "Consigning" is the present participle of "consign," so its history is really the history of the verb. That verb was borrowed from Middle French "consigner," or taken directly from Latin "cōnsignāre," meaning to furnish with a seal. The Latin root combines "con-," meaning together or thoroughly, with "signāre," meaning to mark or sign. The original picture is therefore one of sealing something up, a mark pressed onto an object to certify it and fix it in place. That sense of stamping and authenticating carried over into the English verb, which came to mean handing something over to another person's keeping. Goods could be consigned to a merchant, a ship, or a warehouse, and the sealed or labelled item stood for the transfer of responsibility. The commercial meaning of sending goods to an agent for sale or storage grew naturally from this older idea of formally placing something in another's care.