maquette

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Do you march to the beat of a different drummer? Discover
the origin of this term in our Dictionary of Allusions.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/book.pl?allusion.htm&6
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The Word of the Day for March 28 is:

maquette   \mak-ET\   noun
     : a usually small preliminary model (as of a sculpture or 
a building)

Example sentence: 
     At the town meeting the architect presented a maquette of 
the proposed new school, which will include a state-of-the-art 
gymnasium and media center.

Did you know?
     "Maquette" came to English directly from French, first 
appearing in our language in the late 19th century. The French 
word, which possesses the same meaning as its English 
descendant, derived from the Italian noun "macchietta," 
meaning "sketch," and ultimately from the Latin "macula," 
meaning "spot." Maquettes are generally intended to serve as 
rough models of larger designs. Architects make maquettes of 
their buildings, and sculptors often create maquettes in wax or 
clay to help them realize the final sculpture. As an aside, you 
might spot something familiar in the word's Latin ancestor. The 
term "macula" in English refers to a spot (such as one on the 
eye) that is different from surrounding tissue; this is where 
we get the phrase "macular degeneration."