ETYM Cf. French représentatif.
1. Being or characteristic of government by representation in which citizens exercise power through elected officers and representatives.
2. Serving to represent or typify.
3. Standing for something else.
ETYM Latin vicarius, from vicis change, alternation, turn, the position, place, or office of one person as assumed by another.
Experienced at secondhand.
Indirectly, as, by, or through a substitute.