figment
(ˈfɪgmənt)
[ad. L. figment-um, f. fig- short stem of fingĕre to feign, fashion.]
† 1. Something moulded or fashioned, e.g. an image, a figure, a model. Obs.
| 1592 R. D. Hypnerotomachia 34 b, The excellencie, dilicatnes and perfection of this figment and woorkmanshippe can⁓not be suffi[ci]entlie expressed. 1607 Topsell Four-f. Beasts (1658) 97 Some are of opinion, that this Achaian Hart was but an invention or figment made in bread. 1664 H. More Myst. Iniq. viii. 24 This Statue is become the..eternal God of Heaven and Earth..though it be really a mere figment. |
2. A product of fictitious invention. a. An invented statement, story, doctrine, etc. † In early use also: A fraudulent device.
| 1432–50 tr. Higden (Rolls) I. 177 [The Greeks] reteyne to them the figmentes of Sinonis, the fallace of Vlixes. 1577 Hanmer Anc. Eccl. Hist., The fond figments of hereticall persons. 1598 B. Jonson Ev. Man in Hum. iv. iv, Deliro. I heard he was to meet your worship here. Punt. You heard no figment, sir; I do expect him. a 1639 W. Whately Prototypes ii. xxiv. (1640) 9 It is a sin to lie, even for Gods cause, and to defend even his justice with false tales and figments. 1774 J. Bryant Mythol. I. 340 From this abuse of terms the silly figment took its rise. 1862 Thackeray Round. Papers, On half a loaf 235 Have we..invented a monstrous figment about going to shoot pheasants with Mac in the morning? 1874 Stubbs Const. Hist. II. xvii. 516 Royal prerogative was not..a figment of theorists. |
b. Something which exists only as an arbitrarily framed notion of the mind. Phr. a figment of (the or one's) imagination.
| 1624 Gataker Transubst. 33 We have..great reason to reject it, as a figment of mans braine. 1665 Glanvill Scepsis Sci. 71 Therefore [space] has a kind of being that is no arbitrary figment. 1744 Berkeley Siris §335 Beauty, virtue, and such like are not figments of the mind. 1847 C. Brontë J. Eyre II. xxv. 277 The long dishevelled hair, the swelled black face, the exaggerated stature, were figments of imagination. 1875 Jowett Plato (ed. 2) II. 201 We must not conceive that this logical figment had ever a real existence. 1877 E. Caird Philos. Kant ii. xii. 484 A self-conscious being..existing alone in an unconscious world, is a figment of abstraction. 1955 Bull. Atomic Sci. Mar. 79/1 This condition is almost certainly a figment of the imagination. 1971 Nature 2 Apr. 299/3 Another attempt..to read into prehistoric monuments..patterns and explanations which are simply figments of the observer's imagination. |