Dictionary

simulacrum en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ˌsɪmjəˈleɪkɹəm/ (General-American)
• (Southern-England) audio
• /ˌsɪmjʊˈleɪkɹəm/ (Received-Pronunciation)

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin simulācrum (“image, likeness”), from simul(ā) + -crum (a variant of -culum, from Proto-Indo-European *-tlom, a suffix forming instrument nouns), from similis (“similar (to)”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *sem- (“one; together”).

Meanings

1. A physical image or representation of a deity, person, or thing.
   • [H]e crossed the haunted Almo, renowned of yore for its healing virtues, and whose stream the far-famed simulacrum, the image of Cybele,) which fell from heaven, was wont to be laved with every coming spring; […] 1833, [Edward Bulwer-Lytton], “The Visionary and His Daughter—An Englishman, such as Foreigners Imagine the English”, in Godolphin. […], volume II, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, book III, page 18:
   • a simulacrum of a New York studio apartment
   • Is it not strange to reflect, […] that nightly we lay down our gold, to fashion forth simulacra of peasants, in gay ribands and white bodices, singing sweet songs, and bowing gracefully to the picturesque crosses: and all the while the veritable peasants are kneeling, songlessly, to veritable crosses, in another temper than the kind and fair audiences deem of, and assuredly with another kind of answer than is got out of the opera catastrophe; […] If all the gold that has gone to paint the simulacra of the cottages, and to put new songs in the mouths of the simulacra of the peasants, had gone to brighten the existent cottages, and to put new songs in the mouths of the existent peasants, it might in the end, perhaps, have turned out better so, not only for the peasant, but for even the audience. 1856, John Ruskin, “The Mountain Gloom”, in Modern Painters […], volume IV, London: Smith, Elder and Co., […], →OCLC, part V (Of Mountain Beauty), § 6, page 329:
2. A thing which has the appearance or form of another thing, but not its true qualities; a thing which simulates another thing; an imitation; a semblance.
   • Inside the warehouse, he builds a replica of his world line by line, actor by actor, until fiction and nonfiction blur. Like the full-scale map in [Jose Luis] Borges's short story "On Exactitude in Science," the representation takes on the dimensions of reality to the point of replacing it. The French theorist Jean Baudrillard uses Borges's story as a metaphor for his notion of the simulacrum, which probably explains why Caden, who has trouble naming things, considers titling his production "Simulacrum." 2008 October 23, Manohla Dargis, “Movie review: ‘Synecdoche, New York’: Dreamer, live in the here and now”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 29 Apr 2023:
   • One Life; a little gleam of Time between two Eternities; no second chance to us forevermore! It were well for us to live not as fools and simulacra, but as wise and realities. 1840 May 19, Thomas Carlyle, “Lecture V. The Hero as Man of Letters. Johnson, Rousseau, Burns.”, in On Heroes, Hero-Worship and The Heroic in History, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1840, →OCLC, page 163:
   • [Y]ou find you have nothing—nothing but a coat and wig and a mask smiling below it—nothing but a great simulacrum. 1861 November, W[illiam] M[akepeace] Thackeray, “George the Fourth”, in The Four Georges: Sketches of Manners, Morals, Court, and Town Life, London: Smith, Elder and Co., […], →OCLC, page 169:
   • He is become a mere enchanted simulacrum of a Duke; bewitched under worse than Thessalian spells; without faculty of willing, except as she wills; his People and he the plaything of this Circe or Hecate, that has got hold of him. 1858, Thomas Carlyle, “Journey Homewards from the Reich; Catastrophe on Journey Homewards”, in History of Friedrich II. of Prussia, Called Frederick the Great, volume II, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, book VII, page 233:
   • Certainly a vehicle that seemed to have no inside at all—that appeared to be the mere simulacrum of a vehicle—could not very well contain the two. 1877, William Black, “Culture”, in Green Pastures and Piccadilly. […], volume III, London: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC, page 86:
   • The future just wants more consumers. The future is more newly arrived college grads and tourists in some fruitless search for authenticity. The future is more overpriced Pabsts at dive-bar simulacrums. 2018, Ling Ma, chapter 1, in Severance, New York, N.Y.: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, →ISBN, page 13:
   • It's a sad commentary on our real, full-scale communities that they are so anti-urban by comparison, and so unsafe for the old and frail. […] We shouldn't have to dodge traffic on an eight-lane road just to get to a simulacrum of an inclusive urban place. The problem is not too much Disneyland thinking—it's not enough. 2018 September 18, Amanda Kolson Hurley, CityLab, “Fake Public Squares Are Coming to the Suburbs: ‘Memory Towns’ Promise to Provide an Aging Population with Dementia Therapy and the Accessible Spaces of a Bygone Era”, in Jeffrey Goldberg, editor, The Atlantic, Washington, D.C.: The Atlantic Monthly Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 09 Jan 2023:

Forms

Descendants

symulakrum

Relateds

replica · icon

Synonyms

simulation · simulant

Translations (23)

pt simulacro (physical image or representation of a deity, person, or thing) · de Simulakrum (physical image or representation of a deity, person, or thing) · mk сли́ка (physical image or representation of a deity, person, or thing) · pl symulakrum (thing which has the appearance or form of another thing, but not its true qualities) · ar محاكاة (physical image or representation of a deity, person, or thing) · bg подобие (physical image or representation of a deity, person, or thing) · fi simulakrumi (thing which has the appearance or form of another thing, but not its true qualities) · mk при́видност (physical image or representation of a deity, person, or thing) · fi kuva (physical image or representation of a deity, person, or thing) · pl symulakrum (physical image or representation of a deity, person, or thing) · de Simulacrum (physical image or representation of a deity, person, or thing) · fi malli (physical image or representation of a deity, person, or thing) · hy սիմուլակր (physical image or representation of a deity, person, or thing) · ca simulacre (physical image or representation of a deity, person, or thing) · sh симулакрум (physical image or representation of a deity, person, or thing) · mk при́вид (physical image or representation of a deity, person, or thing) · el απείκασμα (physical image or representation of a deity, person, or thing) · fr simulacre (physical image or representation of a deity, person, or thing) · es simulacro (physical image or representation of a deity, person, or thing) · bg образ (physical image or representation of a deity, person, or thing) · ro simulacru (physical image or representation of a deity, person, or thing) · el επίφαση (physical image or representation of a deity, person, or thing) · it simulacro (physical image or representation of a deity, person, or thing)