imitator

Etymology

It is borrowed from French imitateur, recorded in French from the 14th century,^[2][3] and directly borrowed from Latin imitātor (“a copyist; a mimic”).^[3][4][5] The Shorter Oxford takes it as Latin, at first partly through French,^[5] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged forms the Latin noun from imitātus with -or.^[4] Barnhart treats the English word instead as probably a back-formation from imitation.^[6] The Latin noun is the agent noun of imitor (“to copy, portray”),^[2][3] which Barnhart takes as probably cognate with aemulus (“a rival”) and related to imāgō (“image”).^[6] The American Heritage Dictionary refers the verb to Proto-Indo-European *aim-.^[7] The verb imitate appears later, from 1534.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

One who copies or follows another: “In semblable wyse dyd his imytator, noble duke Theseus”, in Lord Berners's translation of Froissart (1523).^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

The word has stayed close to its first sense, and the OED also records transferred use of things.^[2] Johnson (1755) defined it as one who copies or tries to resemble another, and quoted Dryden: “Imitators are but a servile kind of cattle, says the poet.”^[8]

Timeline

• 1523 – one who copies or follows another.^[2][6]
• 1599 – imitatorship, the office of an imitator.^[9]
• mid 19th century – imitatress, a female imitator.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A person who copies or follows another, or tries to resemble them: Her style soon drew a crowd of imitators.^[4][2][8]
2. A person who produces an imitation of something; a mimic.^[4][2][5]
3. A thing that imitates another.^[2][5]

Related words

• imitate
• imitation
• imitative
• image
• emulate

References

1. ^ a b Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
9. ^ Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press