mime

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin mīmus,^[2][3][4][5] partly also borrowed from French mime (“mimic actor”), recorded in French from the 16th century,^[6][7] from Ancient Greek μῖμος (mîmos, “imitator, mimic, actor”),^[2][6][8] a word of unknown origin, possibly a loan.^[2][6] The Greek noun is the source of μιμέομαι (miméomai, “to imitate”).^[2][7][8] Barnhart thinks the borrowing was probably helped by the earlier sense of mimic, a mime (1590) or acting as a mime (1598).^[7] Old English had a rare mīma, a performer in a mime, from the Latin noun, but only in the “Old English Martyrology”, with no continuity to the later word.^[2] The verb is formed from the noun in English;^[2][6] the OED compares mimer (1838).^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A simple farcical drama of the ancient Greeks and Romans, mimicking familiar types of character: 1616, in Ben Jonson's Epigrammes.^[2][9] Barnhart reads the same text as using the word for a mimic or jester,^[7] and Etymonline dates the noun to about 1600.^[6]

Semantic evolution

Both strands of meaning, the performance and the performer, were already present in Latin and Greek.^[2] In English the performer was first a jester, clown or comic actor (1642, in Milton),^[2] and Johnson (1755) defined a mime as a buffoon who used gestures to represent an action or to raise laughter.^[10] An imitator in general was called a mime from 1677.^[2] The modern art of acting by gesture alone, without words, is recorded from 1766,^[2] and a performer of such silent mime became the usual sense.^[2][4] Etymonline dates mime for a performance, "a pantomime", to 1932.^[6] The verb meant first to imitate or mimic (1728),^[2][9] then to act in mime (1843, in Carlyle) and to represent something by gesture alone (before 1894, in Stevenson);^[2] from 1965 it also meant to mouth the words of a song or pretend to play while a recording is played.^[2][6]

Timeline

• 1616 – noun, a farcical drama of classical antiquity.^[2][7]
• 1642 – a jester, clown or comic actor.^[2]
• 1677 – an imitator.^[2]
• 1728 – verb, to imitate, mimic.^[2][9] Etymonline dates this sense to 1733.^[6]
• 1766 – the art of acting by gesture and movement without words.^[2]
• 1784 – a performer in a classical mime (obsolete by 1888).^[2]
• 1843 – verb, to perform in mime.^[2]
• before 1894 – verb, to represent by gesture without words.^[2]
• 1965 – verb, to pretend to sing along to a recording.^[2][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. The art of portraying a character, story or mood by gesture and movement alone, without words: She studied mime in Paris.^[11][2][9]
2. A performer of this art; a mime artist.^[11][2][9]
3. A performance in which this technique is used.^[11][2]
4. In ancient Greece and Rome, a coarse comic drama imitating scenes from everyday life, or an actor in one.^[11][9][2]
5. A mimic, jester or clown.^[9][2]

Verb

1. To act out or express something by gesture and movement without words: The children mimed the story of the flood.^[11][2][9]
2. To pretend to sing or play an instrument while a recording is played; to lip-sync.^[2][6]
3. To imitate or mimic a person or action.^[9][2]

Word family

• mimer

Related words

• pantomime
• mimic
• mimesis
• mimetic
• mimeograph
• mimosa

Usage notes

MIME, an acronym of Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions, the standard for sending formatted text, images and other data by email, is a separate word recorded from 1992.^[2][9][11]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
8. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
11. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins