Some people have a head for figures, and others have the kind of figures that turn heads.


In the former, the figures are symbols for numbers, and in the latter they are shapes, which is more in tune with the derivation of the word “figure” from the Latin for “to form, shape.”

Any “outline or shape of something” is a figure. Sometimes they’re two-dimensional, as in diagrams, drawings and pictures. With the gift-giving season rapidly approaching, many of us are anticipating the annual struggle with those instruction sheets that seem to get worse as we move further from Figure 1.

Building things is not my strong suit. I can usually figure on needing help to figure out such instructions. I’m not much better at drawing, although I can manage stick figures.

I prefer the three-dimensional types, like figurines or figureheads.

A “figurehead” was originally “a carved figure on the bow of a ship.” You don’t see them much anymore.

However, the word “figurehead” is thriving as a term for “a person put in a position of leadership because of name, rank, etc., but having no real power, authority or responsibility.”

In other words, a figurehead looks good at the front of the ship of state, but it really has nothing to do with what direction it’s going or how fast.

One of the best-known figurines in our culture is Oscar, the golden statuette awarded by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Its intrinsic value is limited, but winning one can lead to deals of seven figures.

People who make that kind of money use some of it to hire other people to figure out what to do with the rest of it. When it comes to making large investments and paying taxes, ballpark figures just won’t do.

I know enough about mathematical figuring to balance the checkbook and determine the proper tip in a restaurant without resorting to a calculator. Fortunately, I’m not burdened with seven-figure worries, unless you move the decimal point.

The figures I deal with most often are figures of speech. These are expressions, such as metaphors and similes, “using words in a nonliteral sense or unusual manner to add vividness, beauty, etc., to what is said or written.”

For example, when we’re upset, we might say that we’re “going to pieces” or “falling apart,” but we don’t mean in the Humpty Dumpty sense. It may take some effort to put ourselves back together again, but we are never literally disassembled.

All too often a speaker or writer will use the word “literally” when what is meant is “figuratively.” If someone were to say, “It made me so angry I literally blew my top,” that just can’t be true, thankfully.

Finally, a word about a figure that’s more scarce than it ought to be, the father figure. Too many youngsters lack a male role model who figures prominently in their lives.
Without this steady influence, things can go awry in a hurry. It just figures.

Barry Wood is a senior copy editor at the Rockford Register Star. Contact him at or write to Wood on Words, 99 E. State St., Rockford, IL 61104.