DALLAS, Jun 21, 1999/ FW/ --- How do you spell mannequins? Funny question, isn't it?

Yet, it is asked more often than you think.

Mannequin, manneken, manikin, mannikin - all these are correct spellings.

The word mannequin came from the Dutch word manneken which means little men. The word manikin actually means a pygmy or dwarf.

Here are different spellings and meanings, even different words which refer to the mannequin.

• dummy which is actually a lay figure in a tailor's shop. It also means an imitation, a copy, or likeness of something used as a substitute, hence during the early part of the 20th century, mannequins are called store dummies becuase they are supposed to represent humans.
• mannequin -a person employed to wear clothing to be photographed or to be displayed before customers or buyers; A clothes model hence Christy Turlington is also a mannequin.
• dummy - a styled and three-dimensional representation of the human form used in window displays, as of clothing.
• lay-figure - a wooden figure or model of the human figure used by tailors, dress designers, etc., for fitting or making clothes.
• lay- figure - a jointed model of the human body, usually of wood, from which artists work in the absence of a living model.
• mannikin - a model of the human body for teaching anatomy, demonstrating surgical operations, etc.
• mannequin - a representation of a human figure, as for displaying clothes in store windows.