'Significant' is Latin for 'making a sign' — from 'signum' + 'facere.' It marks itself as worthy.
Sufficiently great or important to be worthy of attention; having a particular meaning; indicative of something.
From Latin 'significantem,' present participle of 'significāre' (to signify, to indicate, to mean, to portend), a compound of 'signum' (a mark, sign, token) and 'facere' (to make, to do), from PIE *dʰeh₁- (to set, to put, to make). Something significant literally 'makes a sign' — it marks itself as meaningful or important, it produces a signal that demands attention. The dual etymology is revealing: 'signum' may trace to PIE *sekʷ- (to follow), while 'facere' traces to *dʰeh₁- (to put, to place), so 'significant' is etymologically '
In statistics, 'statistically significant' has a precise technical meaning that differs from the everyday sense. A result is statistically significant if it is unlikely to have occurred by chance alone (typically, with a probability below 5%). This means a statistically significant result can be practically trivial — a tiny effect