Other forms: figments
A figment is something invented that has no reality. A figment of the imagination, mere figment, a figment only.
It survives almost entirely in the phrase a figment of the imagination, which is used to dismiss something as invented rather than merely mistaken. On its own the word is rare and slightly literary. Note that figment comes from the same Latin as fiction, feign and figure — fingere, to shape or mould — so a figment is something shaped out of nothing.
1nounfigmentSomething invented that has no reality.
“The ghost in the attic was just a figment of her imagination.”
figment is an invention.
Latin figmentum means anything made or invented, from fingere, to shape or feign. Fiction, feign, figure and effigy come from the same shaping.
Proto-Indo-European
*dʰeyǵʰ-
Latin
figmentum — anything made, a fiction
English, today
figment
Built from
From Latin figmentum (“anything made, a fiction”), from fingō (“make, form, feign”); see fiction, feign, feint.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA