Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The imitation or representation of aspects of the sensible world, especially human actions, in literature and art.
  • noun Biology Mimicry.
  • noun Medicine The appearance, often caused by hysteria, of symptoms of a disease not actually present.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The occurrence of symptoms, without organic basis or in the course of some disease, which simulate those of another disease.
  • noun In rhetoric, imitation or reproduction of the supposed words of another, especially in order to represent his character. See prosopæa.
  • noun In zoology, mimicry; simulated resemblance; physical or physiological simulation by one animal of another, or of a plant or other part of its surroundings. See mimicry

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Rhet. & Biol.) Imitation; mimicry.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The representation of aspects of the real world, especially human actions, in literature and art.
  • noun biology mimicry.
  • noun medicine The appearance of symptoms of a disease not actually present.
  • noun rhetoric The rhetorical pedagogy of imitation.
  • noun rhetoric The imitation of another's gestures, pronunciation, or utterance.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the representation of another person's words in a speech
  • noun the imitative representation of nature and human behavior in art and literature
  • noun any disease that shows symptoms characteristic of another disease

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Greek mīmēsis, from mīmeisthai, to imitate, from mīmos, imitator, mime.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Ancient Greek μίμησις (mīmēsis), from μιμεῖσθαι (mimeisthai, "to imitate"), from μῖμος (mīmos, "a mime").

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Examples

  • While the term mimesis surfaces in numerous fields with diverse connotations, in Girard desire itself tends to be mimetic or imitative.

    Bloodlust Russell Jacoby 2011

  • While the term mimesis surfaces in numerous fields with diverse connotations, in Girard desire itself tends to be mimetic or imitative.

    Bloodlust Russell Jacoby 2011

  • Where mimesis is breached and the figurative function of the semiotic milieu foregrounded, the result may be a radical schism from reality.

    Notes on Worldscape Hal Duncan 2009

  • Where mimesis is breached and the figurative function of the semiotic milieu foregrounded, the result may be a radical schism from reality.

    Archive 2009-12-01 Hal Duncan 2009

  • To free repetition from mimesis is to allow it, as Adrian Parr puts it, "the possibility of reinvention, that is to say repetition dissolves identities as it changes them, giving rise to something unrecognisable and productive"

    Repetition, Representation and Revolution: Deleuze and Blake's _America_ 2008

  • Top Picks Stockholm Art Western art has many traditions but none quite so strong as that invoked by the Greek term mimesis, or "representation."

    Playing With Perception 2008

  • I sometimes wonder if mimesis is really about how closely a work of art imitates life at all.

    Life imitates art Richard Nokes 2005

  • Her version of mimesis is strong enough for virtual worldmaking: it is a repeatable method for stimulating in the body an image that responds to the content of a particular idea.

    Seeing Is Reading 2005

  • Scarry's humanism shares in this technoaestheticism: "Her version of mimesis is strong enough for virtual worldmaking: it is a specific, repeatable method for stimulating in the human body an image that responds to the content of a particular idea."

    Introduction 2005

  • I sometimes wonder if mimesis is really about how closely a work of art imitates life at all.

    Archive 2005-07-01 Richard Nokes 2005

Comments

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  • Is this the source of the internet "meme"?

    January 27, 2013

  • Yes, seems to be the same origin as meme (see etyomology section).

    January 27, 2013

  • (noun) - In rhetoric, imitation of the voice or gestures of another. --Noah Webster's American Dictionary of the English Language, 1828

    February 11, 2018