mimicとは

意味・読み方・使い方

語源

From Latin mimicus, from Ancient Greek μιμικός (mimikós, “belonging to mimes”), from μῖμος (mîmos, “imitator, actor”); see mime.

発音

• IPA^(key): /ˈmɪm.ɪk/
• 韻: -ɪmɪk

動詞

mimic (三人称単数 現在形 mimics, 現在分詞 mimicking, 過去形および過去分詞形 mimicked)

1. To imitate, especially in order to ridicule.
   • 2013 June 1, “A better waterworks”, in The Economist‎^[1], volume 407, number 8838, page 5 (Technology Quarterly):

     An artificial kidney these days still means a refrigerator-sized dialysis machine. Such devices mimic the way real kidneys cleanse blood and eject impurities and surplus water as urine.

2. (biology) To take on the appearance of another, for protection or camouflage.

同意語

• See also Thesaurus:imitate

名詞

mimic (複数形 mimics)

1. A person who practices mimicry, or mime.
2. An imitation.

形容詞

mimic (not comparable)

1. Pertaining to mimicry; imitative.
   • 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 12, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes, […], book II, printed at London: By Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], OCLC 946730821:

     I think every man is cloied and wearied, with seeing so many apish and mimicke trickes, that juglers teach their Dogges, as the dances, where they misse not one cadence of the sounds or notes they heare […].

   • 1667, John Milton, “Book 5”, in Paradise Lost. A Poem Written in Ten Books, London: Printed [by Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […] [a]nd by Robert Boulter […] [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], OCLC 228722708; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: The Text Exactly Reproduced from the First Edition of 1667: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, OCLC 230729554:

     Oft, in her absence, mimic fancy wakes / To imitate her.

   • (Can we date this quote by Wordsworth かつ provide title, author's full name, かつ other details?)

     And there, with fingers interwoven, both hands
     Pressed closely palm to palm and to his mouth
     Uplifted, he, as through an instrument,
     Blew mimic hootings to the silent owls,
     That they might answer him.

2. Mock, pretended.
3. (mineralogy) Imitative; characterized by resemblance to other forms; applied to crystals which by twinning resemble simple forms of a higher grade of symmetry.

関連する語

• mime
• mimicable
• mimicry

Further reading

• mimic in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• mimic in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911