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The term "[[bar]]" first appears in [[Lacan]]'s work in 1957, where it is introduced in the context of a discussion of [[Ferdinand de Saussure]]'s concept of the [[sign]].<ref>{{E}} p.149</ref> In this context, the [[bar]] is the line that separates the [[signifier]] from the [[signified]] (in the [[Saussurean algorithm]]), and stands for the [[resistance]] inherent in [[signification]] which is only crossed in [[metaphor]].

Not long after the 1957 paper in which the term first appears, in the [[seminar]] of 1957-8, [[Lacan]] goes on to use the [[bar]] to strike through his [[algebraic]] [[symbol]]s '''S''' and '''A''' in a manner reminiscent of [[Heidegger]]'s practice of crossing out the word "[[being]]."<ref>[[Heidegger|Heidegger, Martin]]. (1956) ''The Question of Being'', trans. William Kluback and Jean T. WIlde, London: Vision, 1959.</ref> The [[bar]] is used to strike through the '''S''' to produce, [[Image:StrikeS.gif]], the "[[bar|barred subject']]." The [[bar]] here represents the [[division]] of the [[subject]] by [[language]], the [[split]]. Thus whereas before 1957 '''S''' designates the [[subject]] (e.g. in [[schema L]]), from 1957 on '''S''' designates the [[signifier]] and [[Image:StrikeS.gif]] designates the ([[divided]]) [[subject]].