Where does “copycat” come from?
copycat (English) comes from English copy, from Middle English copy, from Old French copie, from Medieval Latin copia, from Latin cōpia, from Latin coopia, from Latin co-, from Latin cōn- — to bend; curve; arch; vault; to bow, bend, arch,...
copycat (English): One who imitates or plagiarizes others' work; A...
Definitions
- One who imitates or plagiarizes others' work; A...
Ancestry of “copycat”, step by step
copycat traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.
via English copy
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | English | copy | The result of copying; an identical duplicate of... |
| 2 | Middle English | copy | — |
| 3 | Old French | copie | abundance, plenty; transcript, copy |
| 4 | Medieval Latin | copia | reproduction, transcript; copy; supply |
| 5 | Latin | cōpia | supply, abundance, copiousness, wealth, riches |
| 6 | Latin | coopia | — |
| 7 | Latin | co- | allomorph of con- |
| 8 | Latin | cōn- | Used in compounds to indicate a being or bringing together of several objects |
| 9 | Latin | cum | with, along with; at; -fold |
| 10 | Old Latin | com | Alternative form of cum |
| 11 | Proto-Italic | kom | with, along, at |
| 12 | Proto-Indo-European | ḱóm | beside, near, by, with |
| 13 | Proto-Indo-European | ḱe | Deictic particle, here; Post-positional... |
| 14 | Middle English | kyt | — |
| 15 | German | kitt | putty certain kinds of cement used for fixing e.g. window panes |
| 16 | Old High German | kuti | — |
| 17 | Proto-West Germanic | kwidu | gum, resin |
| 18 | Proto-Germanic | kweduz | resin |
| 19 | Proto-Indo-European | gʷet- | resin, gum; to say, speak |
| 20 | Proto-Indo-European | gū- | to bend; curve; arch; vault; to bow, bend, arch,... |
via English Cat
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | English | Cat | A piece of heavy machinery, such as a backhoe, of... |
| 2 | English | concatenate | To join or link together, as though in a chain;... |
| 3 | Latin | concatenatus | which is to be linked or bound together or connected |
| 4 | Latin | concateno | concatenate; link or chain together |
| 5 | Latin | catēnō | to chain together |
| 6 | Latin | -ō | suffixed to nouns or adjectives. Originally a-stem nouns. Later extended to nouns with other stems. Forms regular first-conjugation verbs |
| 7 | Proto-Indo-European | -ō | Derives nouns from roots |