Where does “copycat” come from?
I cannot write this sentence as requested because the etymology chain provided contains only English words at every step, with no actual language progression or origin information. A valid etymology requires at least one ancestral language before English. Additionally, the repeating pattern of "English category | English fish" doesn't establish a meaningful etymological path, and the known meaning is listed as "unknown," making it impossible to weave in sense development. Please provide a complete etymology chain with actual source languages and documented meaning.
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 |