token gesture
a small, symbolic act with little meaning
TRANSLATION
token gesture = symbolische Geste --- GOOGLE INDEX token gesture: approximately 300,000 Google hits
STATISTICS
IN THE PRESS
Australian star Ellyse Perry feared a TOKEN GESTURE for females to play against men would divide the cricket community and said any chance to join the Big Bash League should be awarded on merit, not gender.
(Canberra Times)
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Some people claim that technology has a net negative effect on the environment, and view turning off TVs and PCs at night as simply a TOKEN GESTURE.
(BBC News)
(Canberra Times)
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Some people claim that technology has a net negative effect on the environment, and view turning off TVs and PCs at night as simply a TOKEN GESTURE.
(BBC News)
Did you
know?
Australian star Ellyse Perry feared a TOKEN GESTURE for females to play against men would divide the cricket community and said any chance to join the Big Bash League should be awarded on merit, not gender.
(Canberra Times)
---
Some people claim that technology has a net negative effect on the environment, and view turning off TVs and PCs at night as simply a TOKEN GESTURE.
(BBC News)
---
token gesture
noun phrase
- an action or a decision that is so small or inconsequential as to be only symbolic
(McGraw Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs)
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Token is from the Old English tācen, which was used in a variety of similar contexts ranging from symbol, sign, signal and indication to suggestion, evidence, proof and standard. Tācen further evolved from the Proto-Germanic "taiknan" (sign, symbol).
Token has several cognates including the Scottish taiken (sign, token), West Frisian teken (sign, token), Dutch teken (sign, symbol, token), German Zeichen (sign), Swedish tecken (sign, mark, indication, token), Icelandic tákn, teikn (sign, symbol) and the Albanian theks (accent, sign).
Apart from the general sense of something that is intended or supposed to represent or indicate another thing or an event, token also refers specifically to a piece of metal designed to be used as currency. Subway and slot machine tokens are good examples. In printing, a token refers to ten and a half quires, or commonly 250 sheets of paper printed on both sides.
The word gesture stems from the from Medieval Latin "gestura," which refers to someone's bearing or behaviour, and from the Latin gestus (posture, the way a person carries himself).
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SMUGGLE OWAD into today's conversation
"The one percent pay raise was just a token gesture."
(Canberra Times)
---
Some people claim that technology has a net negative effect on the environment, and view turning off TVs and PCs at night as simply a TOKEN GESTURE.
(BBC News)
---
token gesture
noun phrase
- an action or a decision that is so small or inconsequential as to be only symbolic
(McGraw Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs)
---
Token is from the Old English tācen, which was used in a variety of similar contexts ranging from symbol, sign, signal and indication to suggestion, evidence, proof and standard. Tācen further evolved from the Proto-Germanic "taiknan" (sign, symbol).
Token has several cognates including the Scottish taiken (sign, token), West Frisian teken (sign, token), Dutch teken (sign, symbol, token), German Zeichen (sign), Swedish tecken (sign, mark, indication, token), Icelandic tákn, teikn (sign, symbol) and the Albanian theks (accent, sign).
Apart from the general sense of something that is intended or supposed to represent or indicate another thing or an event, token also refers specifically to a piece of metal designed to be used as currency. Subway and slot machine tokens are good examples. In printing, a token refers to ten and a half quires, or commonly 250 sheets of paper printed on both sides.
The word gesture stems from the from Medieval Latin "gestura," which refers to someone's bearing or behaviour, and from the Latin gestus (posture, the way a person carries himself).
---
SMUGGLE OWAD into today's conversation
"The one percent pay raise was just a token gesture."
