[a. F. effigie, ad. L. effigiēs in same sense, f. effingĕre to fashion. Our examples before 18th c. are either pl. or in the phrase in effigie (see 2), so that they may belong to L. EFFIGIES.]
1. A likeness, portrait or image. Now chiefly applied to a sculptured representation, or to a habited image, as in 2; also to a portrait on a coin; in wider sense somewhat arch.
1539. N. Wotton, in Ellis, Orig. Lett., I. cxliv. II. 122. Hanze Albein hath taken th’effigies of my Ladye Anne and the ladye Amelye.
1611. Coryat, Crudities, 211. Their pictures or effigies (for I doubt whether picture be a proper word to expresse the matter, because it is not done with the pensill) are made of this worke [mosaic].
1673. Cave, Prim. Chr., III. ii. 282. The Effigies & Representations of Martyrs.
1713. Steele, Englishman, No. 55, ¶ 1. The burning the Effigy of the Pretender.
1727. A. Hamilton, New Acc. E. Ind., I. xxxi. 384. But his Effigie is often carried abroad in Procession, mounted on a Coach four Stories high.
1847. Emerson, Repr. Men, iv. Wks. (Bohn), I. 343. I look at his effigy opposite the title-page.
1853. Phillips, Rivers Yorksh., viii. 195. Coins, bearing the effigy of the Horse.
1870. F. R. Wilson, Ch. Lindisf., 29. An ancient cross-legged effigy clad in mail.
2. Phrases. In effigy: under the form, or by means of, a portrait or image; also fig. To execute, hang, burn in effigy: to inflict upon an image the semblance of the punishment which the original is considered to have deserved; formerly done by way of carrying out a judicial sentence on a criminal who had escaped; now only as an expression of popular indignation or hatred.
In the early examples the phrase in effigie was prob. always intended as Latin; in poetry of the 17th c. the pronunc. with 4 syllables is usually indicated.
1617. Donne, Serm. (1661), III. 14. In those that are damned before, we are damned in Effigie.
a. 1652. Brome, Queene’s Exch., II. i. (1657), C j b. Marvel not … when this but in Effigy [sic, though metre requires L. in effigie] Was but plac’d by her.
1666. 3rd Advice Painter, 31. Gibson, farewell, till next we put to sea, Faith thou hast drawn her in Effigie.
1678. Butler, Hud., III. II. 182.
| Some, on the Sign-post of an Ale-house, | |
| Hang in Effigy, on the Gallows. |
1707. Lond. Gaz., No. 4367/1. A Third, nam’d Piaget, was executed in Effigie, he had fled from Justice.
1711. Addison, Spect., No. 69, ¶ 7. One of our old Kings … is represented in Effigy.
1724. Swift, Wood’s Exec., Wks. 1755, V. II. 157. The people … appointed certain commissioners to hang him in effigie.
1833. Ht. Martineau, Manch. Strike, iii. 32. Who proposed to burn them in effigy?
Hence Effigy v. trans., to serve as a picture of, to ‘body forth.’
1816. in J. Scott, Vis. Paris (ed. 4), 52. Paris … is … rich in what is calculated … to suggest reflection … by effigying the events of a far distant date.
