The Sign INSTITUTE and Its Derivatives: A Family of Culturally Important ASL Signs

The sign INSTITUTE is the source of a family of ASL signs that are used to refer to residential schools for deaf children and to other institutions. The members of the INSTITUTE sign family—although initialized—are well-established within the Deaf community and, importantly, are used to refer to highly-valued aspects of Deaf culture. This is true despite the fact that initialized signs are sometimes rejected within the Deaf community. We examine the etymology of the sign INSTITUTE and suggest two plausible hypotheses for its origin. In analyzing the etymology of the sign INSTITUTE and its derivatives, we consider historical changes in how state residential schools for deaf children were named in the United States.