signification

I made a start at explication of signification, a term that is an under-appreciated aspect of Samuel Johnson's famous entry on lexicographer:

...A writer of dictionaries; a harmless drudge,
that busies himself in tracing the original,
and detailing the signification of words

...but I'm still trying to unpack how it is that signification seems to be at the epicenter of my own personal Keywords, tangent to Meaning and Semantics, but having a more personal and idiosyncratic sense, which recognizes the nuances of my history of engagement with words and phrases.

Dictionaries (and the lexicographers who make them) seek definitions of words: general statements of meaning and sense that have developed within a speech community and settled down enough to allow an authoritative pronouncement upon their semantic status and content. But Humpty Dumpty has the last word:

'When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone,
'it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less.'

MY Keywords have developed particular savor through my use and application and contemplation of them, and in some cases have wandered beyond the dictionary definition, and/or accreted complexities. Dumpty again:

'When I make a word do a lot of work like that,' said Humpty Dumpty,
'I always pay it extra.'

'Oh!' said Alice. She was too much puzzled to make any other remark.

'Ah, you should see 'em come round me of a Saturday night,'
Humpty Dumpty went on, wagging his head gravely from side to side:
'for to get their wages, you know.'