Word of the Day: May 18, 2009 - effigy

effigy (ef-i-jee)- noun

An effigy is "a representation or image, especially sculptured, as on a monument."

First used in the written form around 1530-1540. Effigy comes ultimately from the Latin verb effingere, meaning "form, portray." This was a compound formed from the prefix ex- 'out' and fingere 'make shape' (source of the English words: faint, feign, fiction, figment; and related to English dairy and dough).  It formed the basis of the noun effigies, meaning "representation, likeness, portrait," which was borrowed into English in the 16th century as effigies: "If that you were the good Sir Rowland's son, as you have whisper'd faithfully you were, and as mine eye doth his effigies witness most truly limn'd and living in your face, be truly welcome hither," (Shakespeare, As You Like It, 1600).  By the 18th century, however, this had come to be regarded as a plural form, and so a new singular, effigy, was created.

Photo by Matt Mattila