mimesis

American  

[mi-mee-sis, mahy-] / mɪˈmi sɪs, maɪ- /

noun

1. Rhetoric. imitation or reproduction of the supposed words of someone else, as in order to represent their character.

2. (in literature, film, art, etc.)

   1. imitation of the real world, as by re-creating instances of human action and events or portraying objects found in nature.

      This movie is a mimesis of historical events.

   2. the showing of a story, as by dialogue and enactment of events.

3. Biology. imitation.

4. Zoology. mimicry.

5. Pathology. Also

   1. the simulation, due to hysteria, of the symptoms of a disease.

   2. the simulation of the symptoms of one disease by another.

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mimesis British  

/ mɪˈmiːsɪs /

noun

1. art literature the imitative representation of nature or human behaviour

2. 1. any disease that shows symptoms of another disease

   2. a condition in a hysterical patient that mimics an organic disease

3. biology another name for mimicry

4. rhetoric representation of another person's alleged words in a speech

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Etymology

Origin of mimesis

First recorded in 1540–50; from Greek mī́mēsis “imitation,” equivalent to mīmē- (variant stem of mīmeîsthai “to copy”) + -sis noun suffix ( -sis )

Example Sentences

I still wonder if this is a kind of clever mimesis.

From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 27, 2018

In victory a kind of mimesis has begun.

From The Guardian • Sep. 19, 2018

His objective, it seemed, was to abandon mimesis, the depiction of people and things.

From The New Yorker • Apr. 11, 2016

In the same essay, Chaudhuri claimed it was time for the “postmodernist Indian English novel” to reject “a mimesis of form, where the largeness of the book allegorizes the largeness of the country it represents.”

From Slate • Apr. 6, 2016

We shall see this more clearly if we examine for a moment this Greek word mimesis.

From Ancient Art and Ritual by Harrison, Jane Ellen

Related Words

• clone
• impersonation
• impression
• mimicry
• parody
• reflection
• replica
• reproduction