simulacrum
[sim-yuh-ley-kruh m]
- a slight, unreal, or superficial likeness or semblance.
- an effigy, image, or representation: a simulacrum of Aphrodite.
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Origin of simulacrum
1590–1600; < Latin simulācrum likeness, image, equivalent to simulā(re) to simulate + -crum instrumental suffix
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for simulacra
Contemporary Examples
In a telling manner, the drugs of the past have disappeared and been replaced by their own simulacra.
Historical Examples
The senseless dead, the simulacra of mortals, as Homer says.
We cannot feed our minds on simulacra any more than we can our bodies.
Ways of NatureJohn Burroughs
It is usually supposed that these simulacra were hollow idols of basket-work.
Early Britain--Roman BritainEdward Conybeare
There were 136 of these simulacra, "99 of whom," says the report "would have been killed."
A Governing power must exist: your other powers here are simulacra; this power is it.
The French RevolutionThomas Carlyle
simulacrum
- any image or representation of something
- a slight, unreal, or vague semblance of something; superficial likeness
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Word Origin
C16: from Latin: likeness, from simulāre to imitate, from similis like
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for simulacra
simulacrum
n.
1590s, from Latin simulacrum "likeness, image, form, representation, portrait," dissimilated from *simulaclom, from simulare "to make like, imitate, copy, represent" (see simulation). The word was borrowed earlier as semulacre (late 14c.), via Old French simulacre.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper