Etymologically
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imitation

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Pronunciation

  • /ɪmɪˈteɪ̯ʃən/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English imitacioun, also spelled ymytacyoun,[2][3][4] borrowed from Old French imitacion,[2][3][4][5] from Latin imitātiō (“a copying, imitation”),[3][4][5][6] a noun of action from imitor (“to copy, portray, imitate”), formed on its past participle imitātus.[3][5][4] The OED takes the English word directly from Latin, perhaps through French.[7] Etymonline traces the Latin verb to a suffixed form of Proto-Indo-European *aim- (“to copy”),[3] and Barnhart takes it as probably related to aemulus (“a rival”); both connect it with imāgō, the source of image.[3][4] The verb imitate (1534) is a back-formation from imitation or imitator.[4][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Emulation, the effort to equal another: before 1400, in a Middle English version of the Pauline Epistles, where ymytacyoun translates the Latin emulacionem of 2 Corinthians 7:11.[2] Etymonline gives "emulation; act of copying", about 1400.[3]

Semantic evolution

The OED's first quotation for the action of copying is from about 1504, in W. Atkinson's translation of Thomas à Kempis,[7] and the phrase in imitation of, compared with French à l'imitation de, follows in 1579, in North's Plutarch.[7] The concrete sense, a copy or artificial likeness, something made to look like what it is not, dates from about 1600, in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar.[7][3] Johnson (1755) defined the word as "the act of copying; attempt to resemble", and also as a loose kind of translation in which modern examples replace ancient ones, a sense the OED records from Cowley in 1656.[8][7] In music it has meant, since 1728, the repetition of a phrase by another voice or part,[7][9] and in psychology, since 1895, the taking over of another person's behaviour while learning.[7] The attributive use, "made to look like the genuine article", is dated 1818 by Merriam-Webster and 1840 by the OED and Etymonline.[10][7][3]

Timeline

  • before 1400 – ymytacyoun, emulation.[2][4]
  • c. 1504 – the action of imitating.[7]
  • 1579 – in imitation of.[7]
  • c. 1600 – a copy, an artificial likeness.[7][3]
  • 1656 – literature, a loose kind of translation.[7]
  • 1728 – music, the repetition of a phrase in another part.[7]
  • 1818 – attributive, not genuine, according to Merriam-Webster; the OED and Etymonline date it to 1840.[10][7][3]
  • 1895 – psychology, the copying of a model in learning.[7]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The act or practice of imitating; copying or mimicry: Children learn much by imitation.[9][10][7]
  2. Something made as a copy of something else, especially of a genuine article; a counterfeit.[9][10][7]
  3. An impression of a person's voice or manner: She does a good imitation of her uncle.[9]
  4. (music) The repetition of a phrase or figure in one part after it has appeared in another, as in a fugue.[9][7]
  5. (literature) A composition that adapts the style or matter of an older work to the writer's own purposes.[9][7]
  6. (psychology) The taking over, consciously or not, of another person's behaviour or attitudes in learning.[7]
  7. in imitation of: copying, or after the manner of.[7][10]

Adjective

  1. Made to look like something genuine and usually more costly: an imitation fur coat.[10][9][7]

Word family

  • imitational
  • overimitation
  • self-imitation

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  5. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  6. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  9. ^ a b c d e f g Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  10. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster