the.com/figure

means A shape, a number, or a person considered as a shape — your body's outline, a numeral on a page, or someone notable viewed as if from a distance.

from From Latin 'figura' meaning a shape or form, itself from 'fingere' — to shape or fashion, the same root that gives us 'feign' and 'fiction.' So a figure was originally just something molded or made — a sense that split into many: the molded shape of a body, a molded symbol standing for a number, a person shaped by reputation into something larger than life. The phrase 'cut a figure' keeps the oldest sense alive — you, shaped into an impression others can see.