mimicus

Forms

mīmicus (feminine mīmica, neuter mīmicum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek μιμικός (mīmikós, “of or for mimes”),^[2][1][3] from μῖμος (mîmos, “mime”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its earliest quotation in the OLD is from Cicero, who warns that a joke should not be scurrilis or mimicus, like a buffoon's or a mime's.^[2][5][6]

Semantic evolution

It first means belonging to or typical of a mime or farce,^[2] and Quintilian and Seneca use it so.^[7][6] As a noun it is a writer of mimes in Volcacius Sedigitus.^[2][6] Things represented in a mime are not real, so it came to mean sham, empty or feigned:^[2] Seneca the Elder speaks of mimicae nuptiae, a mock wedding,^[2][7] Petronius of a mimica mors, a pretended death,^[5][6] and Pliny the Younger of things mimicae et ineptae, “farcical and silly”.^[5][6] Cicero also uses it of a comic actress's stage name.^[2] Medieval writers in Britain use it of histrionic arts, and in the 15th century as a noun for an actor.^[3] English mimic comes from it, first recorded in the 1580s.^[4]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of jokes like a mime's.^[2][8]
• before 66 AD – Petronius has mimica mors.^[5][6][8]
• c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian uses it of mime-like style.^[7][8]
• 1494 – A record from New Romney uses mimici of actors.^[3]
• 1580s – English mimic is first recorded.^[4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Belonging to or typical of a mime or farce, farcical.^[2][5][6]
2. Represented in a mime; hence sham, empty, feigned.^[2][7][5]
3. Belonging to a comic actor or actress.^[2]
4. (Medieval Latin) Histrionic.^[3]

Noun

1. A writer of mimes.^[2][6]
2. (Medieval Latin) An actor.^[3]

Related words

• mīmus
• mīma
• English mimic

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
8. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de