: an image or representation especially of a person
especially: a crude figure representing a hated person
Phrases
in effigy
: publicly in the form of an effigy
the football coach was burned in effigy
Did you know?
An earlier sense of effigy is "a likeness of a person shaped out of stone or other materials," so it's not surprising to learn that effigy derives, by way of Middle French, from the Latin effigies, which, in turn, comes from the verb effingere ("to form"), a combination of the prefix ex- and fingere, which means "to shape." Fingere is the common ancestor of a number of other English nouns that name things you can shape. A fiction is a story you shape with your imagination. Figments are shaped by the imagination, too; they're something you imagine or make up. A figure can be a numeral, a shape, or a picture that you shape as you draw or write.
Example Sentences
Recent Examples on the WebThe effigy stood 61 feet tall with an intricate design. Hailey Rein, USA TODAY, 5 Sep. 2022 Also smashed were a bowl from 6th century B.C., worth about $100,000, and a ceramic Caddo effigy bottle valued at about $10,000. Bradford Betz, Fox News, 3 June 2022 An effigy of the holy virgin anchors an altar to the left of the bar, while a television plays videos of drag performances to the right. Von Diaz, Washington Post, 3 June 2022 After hiking, biking, and hanging out creekside, drive eight miles to the Serpent Mound effigy, a prehistoric Native American structure slated to become a Unesco World Heritage site. Alison Van Houten, Outside Online, 1 Oct. 2020 The kylix was worth $100,000, while the effigy bottle was valued at $10,000. Elizabeth Djinis, Smithsonian Magazine, 3 June 2022 Also smashed were a bowl from 6th century B.C., worth about $100,000, and a ceramic Caddo effigy bottle valued at about $10,000. Bradford Betz, Fox News, 3 June 2022 Also smashed were a bowl from 6th century B.C., worth about $100,000, and a ceramic Caddo effigy bottle valued at about $10,000.Chron, 2 June 2022 For Leigh, the ritual of burning the effigy was therapeutic.New York Times, 14 Apr. 2022 See More
Word History
Etymology
borrowed from Middle French & Latin; Middle French effigie, borrowed from Latin effigiēs "representation, copy, specter," from effig-, variant stem of effingere "to shape, portray, copy" (from ef-, variant before f of ex-ex- entry 1 + fingere "to mold, fashion, make a likeness of") + -iēs, deverbal noun suffix — more at feign