noun
effigy
EF-ih-jee/ˈefɪdʒi/
A model or image of a person, often used in mockery or protest.
The straw-and-cloth effigy has a rough human shape.
Etymology
Latin effigies meant a likeness or image and comes from, or is related to, a verb meaning “mold, fashion, portray.” The crude figure represents a person, sometimes standing in for that person in symbolic punishment or protest.
In context
the miserable statue of that Périnet Leclerc who had delivered up the Paris of Charles V I. to the English, a crime which his effigy, its face battered with stones and soiled with mud, expiated for three centuries
More examples
- The tomb bore a carved effigy of the knight.
- The artist made a small wax effigy.
- An effigy stood at the center of the demonstration.
Forms
effigy · effigies
Similar words
- statue
- A statue is a sculpted figure; an effigy is a representation of a particular person, often symbolic or mocking.
- likeness
- A likeness is any recognizable representation; an effigy is commonly a physical model or image.