c. 1400, "emulation; act of copying," from Old French imitacion, from Latin imitationem (nominative imitatio) "a copying, imitation," noun of action from past participle stem of imitari "to copy, portray, imitate," from PIE *im-eto-, from root *aim- "to copy." Meaning "an artificial likeness" is from c. 1600. As an adjective, from 1840.
1952, trademark taken out by Haloid Co. of Rochester, N.Y., for a copying device, from xerography. The verb is first attested 1965, from the noun, despite strenuous objection from the Xerox copyright department. Related: Xeroxed; Xeroxing.
1889, "type of copying machine that reproduces from a stencil," invented by Edison, from Greek mimeisthai "to mimic, represent, imitate, portray" (from mimos "mime, imitator;" see mime (n.)) + -graph. A proprietary name from 1903 to 1948. The verb meaning "to reproduce by means of a mimeograph" is attested by 1895. Related: Mimeographed; mimeographing.
"writing room," especially a room set apart in a monastery or abbey for writing or copying manuscripts, 1774, an antiquarian's word, from Late Latin scriptorium "place for writing," noun use of neuter of Latin scriptorius "pertaining to writing," from Latin scriptus, past participle of scribere "to write" (from PIE root *skribh- "to cut"). It was in Middle English in a nativized form, scriptory (early 15c.).
in general, "the repetition of endings in words, rhyme and near rhyme," but also, in palaeography, a form of scribal error which occurs "when two words/phrases/lines end with the same sequence of letters. The scribe, having finished copying the first, skips to the second, omitting all intervening words" [Robert B. Waltz, "The Encyclopedia of New Testament Textual Criticism," 2013]; Greek, literally "same ending;" see homo- (1) "the same" + telos.
late 14c., "make a copy of, duplicate" (a text or document), from Old French copier (14c.) and directly from Medieval Latin copiare "to transcribe," originally "to write in plenty," from Latin copia "plenty" (see copy (n.)). Hence, "to write an original text many times."
Figurative sense of "to imitate, to follow as an example" is attested from 1640s. Of computer data, by 1953. Meaning "send a copy (of a letter, later e-mail, etc.) to a third party" is attested by 1983. Related: Copied; copying.
"illegal and clandestine copying and sharing of literature," 1967, from Russian samizdat, "self-publishing," from sam "self" (from PIE root *sem- (1) "one; as one, together with") + izdatel'stvo "publishing" (from iz "from, out of," from PIE *eghs; see ex-; + dat' "to give," from PIE root *do- "to give"). The formation is said to be a word-play on Gosizdat, the former state publishing house of the USSR. One who took part in it was a samizdatchik (plural samizdatchiki). Later and less common was tamizdat "writings published abroad and smuggled back into the USSR," from tam "there."
"light, loose upper garment of linen or cotton," 1828 (from 1822 as a French word in English), from French blouse, "workman's or peasant's smock" (1788), which is of unknown origin. Perhaps it is akin to Provençal (lano) blouso "short (wool)" [Gamillscheg]. Another suggestion [Klein] is that it is from Medieval Latin pelusia, from Pelusium, a city in Upper Egypt, supposedly a clothing manufacturing center in the Middle Ages.
At first a garment worn by French working-men as a protection from dust, etc., later adopted fashionably for women and children, not without objection:
In Paris, a very slovenly, loose, drawn frock, with most capacious sleeves, had been introduced called a blouse. Some of our priestesses of the toilet seemed emulous of copying this deshabille, with some slight alterations, but we never wish to see it on the symmetrical form of a British lady. ["Summary of Fashion for 1822," in Museum of Foreign Literature and Science, Jan.-June 1823]
