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Simulacrum (Oxford English Dictionary)

Pl. simulacra (7 -achra), and -acrums. [L., f. simul{amac}re to make like, to SIMULATE. See also SIMULACRE.]

1. A material image, made as a representation of some deity, person, or thing.

1599 SANDYS Europæ Spec. (1632) 229 The Heathen them~selves call them every where the Effigies and Simulachra of other. 1833 LYTTON Godolphin xxvi. 52 The far-famed simulacrum (the image of Cybele) which fell from Heaven. 1869 Pall Mall G. 13 Oct. 11 The dead-alive gape, stare, and hue of the lumpish simulacrums of a wax show. 1887 B. V. HEAD Hist. Numorum 634 The mountain is flanked by two tall conical simulacra, with radiate summits.

2. Something having merely the form or appearance of a certain thing, without possessing its substance or proper qualities.

1805 Edin. Rev. VII. 183 Does he mean..films, shadows, or simulacra proceeding from real external existences. 1840 CARLYLE Heroes (1858) 268 An ambitious charlatan, perversity and simulacrum. Ibid. 280 It behoved men to quit simulacra and return to fact. 1861 THACKERAY Four Georges iv. (1862) 184 Nothing but a coat, and a wig, and a mask smiling below it{em}nothing but a great simulacrum. 1881 Contemp. Rev. Feb. 235 The true succession lies with those who carry the principles of the master to a more fruitful development, and not with those who embalm them as..sacred but sterile simulacra.

b. A mere image, a specious imitation or likeness, of something.