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  1. mimesis love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. The imitation or representation of aspects of the sensible world, especially human actions, in literature and art.
  2. n. Biology Mimicry.
  3. n. Medicine The appearance, often caused by hysteria, of symptoms of a disease not actually present.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. In rhetoric, imitation or reproduction of the supposed words of another, especially in order to represent his character. See prosopæa.
  2. n. In zoology, mimicry; simulated resemblance; physical or physiological simulation by one animal of another, or of a plant or other part of its surroundings. See mimicry
  3. n. The occurrence of symptoms, without organic basis or in the course of some disease, which simulate those of another disease.

Wiktionary

  1. n. The representation of aspects of the real world, especially human actions, in literature and art.
  2. n. biology mimicry.
  3. n. medicine The appearance of symptoms of a disease not actually present.
  4. n. rhetoric The rhetorical pedagogy of imitation.
  5. n. rhetoric The imitation of another's gestures, pronunciation, or utterance.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. (Rhet. & Biol.) Imitation; mimicry.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. the representation of another person's words in a speech
  2. n. the imitative representation of nature and human behavior in art and literature
  3. n. any disease that shows symptoms characteristic of another disease

Etymologies

  1. From Ancient Greek μίμησις (mīmēsis), from μιμεῖσθαι (mimeisthai, "to imitate"), from μῖμος (mīmos, "a mime"). (Wiktionary)
  2. Greek mīmēsis, from mīmeisthai, to imitate, from mīmos, imitator, mime. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

  • “While the term mimesis surfaces in numerous fields with diverse connotations, in Girard desire itself tends to be mimetic or imitative.”

    Simon & Schuster: Bloodlust

  • “Where mimesis is breached and the figurative function of the semiotic milieu foregrounded, the result may be a radical schism from reality.”

    Archive 2009-12-01

  • “To free repetition from mimesis is to allow it, as Adrian Parr puts it, "the possibility of reinvention, that is to say repetition dissolves identities as it changes them, giving rise to something unrecognisable and productive”

    Repetition, Representation and Revolution: Deleuze and Blake's _America_

  • “Top Picks Stockholm Art Western art has many traditions but none quite so strong as that invoked by the Greek term mimesis, or "representation.”

    The Wall Street Journal: Playing With Perception

  • “I sometimes wonder if mimesis is really about how closely a work of art imitates life at all.”

    Life imitates art

  • “Her version of mimesis is strong enough for virtual worldmaking: it is a repeatable method for stimulating in the body an image that responds to the content of a particular idea.”

    Seeing Is Reading

  • “Scarry's humanism shares in this technoaestheticism: "Her version of mimesis is strong enough for virtual worldmaking: it is a specific, repeatable method for stimulating in the human body an image that responds to the content of a particular idea.”

    Introduction

  • “Poesie therefore, is an Art of Imitation: for so Aristotle termeth it in the word mimesis {24}, that is to say, a representing, counterfeiting, or figuring forth to speake Metaphorically.”

    Defence of Poesie

  • “Ultimately, I’d hope to be able to see both books of wonder and books of misery as filtered by the subjectivity of the writer, worldviews where the mimesis is always already coloured by the filters, narrowed by the blinkers.”

    Bukiet on Brooklyn Books

  • “For this reason, many therapists-beginning with Freud-have clients create a 'mimesis' - meaning they role-play the situation from the offending party's perspective.”

    SteveFarber.com

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synonyms (2)

Words with the same meaning

  1. imitation
  1. mimicry

hypernyms (5)

Words that are more generic or abstract

  1. citation
  1. quote
  1. quotation
  1. imitation
  1. disease

same context (24)

Words that are found in similar contexts

  1. vielle
  2. nominalism
  3. personation
  4. frith
  1. authoritarianism
  2. harmonized
  3. alloying
  4. couth
  1. ultramarine
  2. deontology
  3. piano-player
  4. knock-off
  1. graining
  2. barstool
  3. 'bull'
  4. good
  1. caligraphy
  2. resistance
  3. literalness
  4. internationalism
  1. Beirut
  2. esthetics
  3. surrealism
  4. butit

reverse dictionary (4)

Words that contain this word in their definition

  1. mimosis
  1. mimetism
  1. mimetic
  1. mimicry

tags (1)

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  1. literary device

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  • deinonychus Yes, seems to be the same origin as meme (see etyomology section). Jan 27, 2013

  • MonicaRaeMN Is this the source of the internet "meme"?
    Jan 27, 2013

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‘mimesis’ has been looked up 3641 times, loved by 9 people, added to 49 lists, commented on 2 times, and has a Scrabble score of 11.