herm

noun

ˈhərm 

: a statue in the form of a square stone pillar surmounted by a bust or head especially of Hermes

Examples of herm in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

This female image of fruitfulness is matched across the painting’s 10-foot expanse by a menacing herm of Pan — the god of the fields, symbol of fertility and, according to Plutarch, the only Greek deity who dies — peering out from the bushes. —Los Angeles Times, 6 Dec. 2021

Publicly displayed for the first time, the tripod’s legs are adorned with carved ivory bas-reliefs of cupids cavorting around herms, boundary markers of stone pillars with human heads. —Christopher Knight, latimes.com, 3 July 2019

Word History

Etymology

Latin hermes, from Greek hermēs statue of Hermes, herm, from Hermēs

First Known Use

circa 1580, in the meaning defined above