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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.
Examples of effigy in a Sentence
Ellen Walker, JSTOR Daily, 3 Sep. 2025
In 2017, a man died after running into the flames of the effigy.
—Robert Alexander, MSNBC Newsweek, 2 Sep. 2025
The gathering is highlighted by the burning of a large wooden effigy of a man.
—Stephen Sorace, FOXNews.com, 1 Sep. 2025
In June 1986, the founders of the Burning Man project and nonprofit, Larry Harvey and Jerry James, built a wooden human effigy and set it on fire on San Francisco’s Baker Beach as a symbolic act of letting go of their personal crises.
—Cnn.com Wire Service, Mercury News, 30 Aug. 2025
See All Example Sentences for effigy
Cite this Entry
“Effigy.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/effigy. Accessed 7 Sep. 2025.
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effigy
noun
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