The word stands for or represents the concept, and can be used to reference or designate either a ‘real’ object in the world or indeed even some imaginary object, like angels dancing on the head of a pin, which no one has ever actually seen.
I think I can say a few things about this phrase. I guess because this is a course regarding technology, this question can and should be asked, "Is the way in which we have envisioned and produced different modern technologies linked to social and cultural movements or stereotypes?" If we have preferred images that we engender from representative forms–words–then the way in which we, and our predecessors, is strong influenced by our cultural, social, and inevitably linguistic geography?