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figuration

fig·ur·a·tion

/ˌfɪɡ.jəˈɹeɪ.ʃən//ˌfɪɡ.əˈɹeɪ.ʃən/

noun

What it means

  1. countableuncountableThe act of giving figure or determinate form.
  2. countableuncountableForm, outline or boundaries.
  3. countableuncountableOrnamentation or decoration, especially by the addition of figures.

    […]a shift to modernist building typologies in the early 1950s led to the abandonment of symmetry, centrality, and figuration. Since the 1980s, big-box typologies, frosted with postmodern architectural veneer, have dominated.

    2001, Stephen Fox, Rice University: An Architectural Tour, page 204

In a sentence

[…]a shift to modernist building typologies in the early 1950s led to the abandonment of symmetry, centrality, and figuration. Since the 1980s, big-box typologies, frosted with postmodern architectural veneer, have dominated.

2001, Stephen Fox, Rice University: An Architectural Tour, page 204

Where it comes from

  1. Latinfigūrō“to form”
  2. Middle Frenchfiguration
  3. Middle Englishfiguracion
  4. Englishfiguration

Late Middle English figuracion, from Middle French figuration, from Latin figūrō (“to form”). Equivalent to figurate + -ion.

Full entry for figuration →

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