herm

[hurm]

noun

1. a monument consisting of a four-sided shaft tapering inward from top to bottom and bearing a head or bust; those of Hermes usually had an erect penis, which passersby stroked for luck.

herm

/ hɜːm, ˈhɜːmə /

noun

1. (in ancient Greece) a stone head of Hermes surmounting a square stone pillar

Word History and Origins

Origin of herm¹

1570–80; < Latin hermēs < Greek hermês statue of Hermes

Word History and Origins

Origin of herm¹

C16: from Latin herma, from Greek hermēs _Hermes ¹

Example Sentences

Publicly displayed for the first time, the tripod’s legs are adorned with carved ivory bas-reliefs of cupids cavorting around herms, boundary markers of stone pillars with human heads.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

A herm’s original apotropaic function as a statue to ward off evil is here colonized by traditional femininity — and now runs gleefully amok.

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He used repurposed wood masts from ships, beams from old waterfront buildings and 19th-century stencils found in his loft to make a series of enigmatic assemblages that he called herms, after the classical figures.

Read more on Seattle Times

Five, dubbed “amorphous herms,” have only heads atop plaster pillars.

Read more on Washington Post

Photograph: Dulwich Picture Gallery Poussin, The Triumph of PanRevellers spin and gyre round a red-faced herm, the statue coming to monstrous life as wine flushes its cheeks.

Read more on The Guardian