Simulacrum (plural: simulacra), from the Latin simulare, "to make like, to put on an appearance of", originally meaning a material object representing something (such as an idol representing a deity, or a painted still-life of a bowl of fruit).
A sense of a "mere" image, an empty form devoid of spirit, and descended to connote a specious or fallow representation.
A copy of a copy which has been so dissipated in its relation to the original that it can no longer be said to be a copy. The simulacrum, therefore, stands on its own as a copy without a model.
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