copycat

Etymology

It is formed from English copy + cat,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} the second part in its contemptuous use for a person.^[2] The word is American in origin.^[3][6][7] Etymonline suggests that domestic cats sometimes imitate one another,^[3] while Cassell's finds no convincing explanation for the cat and puts it down to alliteration.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

A derogatory name for someone who copies another person or another's work: recorded by 1884, and probably a generation older, according to Etymonline.^[3] The OED's first quotation is from S. O. Jewett's The Country of the Pointed Firs (1896),^[2] and Merriam-Webster also dates it to 1896.^[4][8]

Semantic evolution

The noun soon came to be used before another noun for an imitative act or product,^[4][9] and Wiktionary records its use for a criminal who imitates another's crime.^[1] A verb followed: Merriam-Webster dates the intransitive use, to act as a copycat, to 1926,^[4][8] and the OED the transitive use, to imitate slavishly, to 1932, in R. Lehmann's Invitation to the Waltz.^[2][3]

Timeline

• 1884 – noun, one who copies another or another's work.^[3]
• 1926 – verb, intransitive, to act as a copycat.^[4]
• 1932 – verb, transitive, to imitate slavishly.^[2][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. (informal) A person, especially a child, who imitates or copies someone else.^[9][4][10]
2. Used before another noun: imitating something earlier, as a copycat robbery modelled on a famous one.^[4][9][1]

Verb

1. To act as a copycat; to imitate closely or slavishly.^[4][10][2]

Word family

• copycatism

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ Gove, Philip Babcock, ed. (1961), Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam
6. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ a b Cassell's Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins, London: Cassell
8. ^ a b Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
10. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin