"Copycat" Idiom Meaning, Origin & History | Superduper English Idioms
Channel: Superduper English Idioms
Date: 2021-03-13

0:00 - How to Say, “Copycat.”
0:19 - Examples of “Copycat.”
0:57 - Meaning of “Copycat.”
1:17 - Origin of “Copycat.”
3:19 - More Examples of “Copycat.”
4:12 - Conclusion

“Copycat.”

When someone calls you a “copycat”, they are accusing you of copying, imitating, stealing something - and it could be either light-hearted or serious.

“You’re such a copycat!” an older sister might say to her younger brother as he does whatever she does while playing.

Maybe you’re out shopping with your friend, “Should we buy this copycat brand of chips? It’s much cheaper.”

“Which brand is the original? There are so many copycats that I can’t tell,” you might say as you shop on your mobile.

As you can see, a “copycat” is simply an imitator, emulator, duplicator - or as they say in Jamaica, “fala-fashin” (follow fashion) - and can be a person or other entity.

It’s easy to understand the origin of the idiom, “copycat” - also spelled “copy-cat” and “copy cat” - when you know that at various times in history, “cat” was a term for people.

As recently as the 1920s and in the decades following, “cool cat” was a term used in American jazz circles to say that someone’s music was great.

“Copycat” is a little bit older than “cool cat” and though nowadays is often used in a teasing, playful manner, copycat was historically used in an accusatory way.

The first written appearance of “copycat” comes from Maine, USA in 1887, written down by the author, Constance Cary Harrison in her quasi-memoir, “Bar Harbor Days”.

Though people often look negatively upon copycats or imitators, they say that “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.” If someone copies you, they obviously love what you’re doing.

On another note, we often have to be copycats in order to be able to be original. With any skill, we often must try to imitate the greats, before we can become great ourselves.

“I’m not a copycat! I just had to have the same car after riding in yours,” your best friend might say.

Perhaps you’re visiting Las Vegas for the first time and the tour guide is talking, “On the right, you’ll see the Eiffel Tower… a copycat version, of course!”

“After the first online mattress retailer found great success, many copycat retailers started popping up,” a business teacher might be leading a case study on online businesses.

So, the next time you want to say that some person or organization has ripped off, pirated, appropriated, plagiarized or perhaps mimicked, duplicated, replicated, imitated, just call them a “copycat”.

#superduperenglishidioms #englishidioms #idioms #proverbs

References: https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/66368/whats-the-origin-of-copycat

https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/29777/jive-talkin%E2%80%99-origins-cool-dudes-groovy-chicks-and-hip-cats