mimical

English

Etymology

From mimic +‎ -al.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈmɪmɪk(ə)l/

Adjective

mimical (comparative more mimical, superlative most mimical)

1. (obsolete) Pertaining to a mime, or jester.
2. (now rare) Imitative; that mimics something else.
   • 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed by John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition II, section 3, member 2:

     If he can […] talk big fustian, insult, scorn, strut, contemn others, and use a little mimical and apish complement above the rest, he is a complete (Egregiam vero laudem), a well-qualified gentleman […]

   • 1640 (date written), H[enry] M[ore], “ΨΥΧΟΖΩΙΑ [Psychozōia], or A Christiano-platonicall Display of Life, […]”, in ΨΥΧΩΔΙΑ [Psychōdia] Platonica: Or A Platonicall Song of the Soul, […], Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: […] Roger Daniel, printer to the Universitie, published 1642, →OCLC, book 2, stanza 47, page 26:

     [F]requent jot / Of his hard ſetting jade did ſo confound / The vvords that he by papyr-ſtealth had got, / That their loſt ſenſe the youngſter could not ſound, / Though he vvith mimical attention did abound.

     Jade here refers to “a horse too old to be put to work”.

   • 1651, Henry Wotton, A Philosophical Survey of Education:

     Man is, of all creatures, the most mimical.

3. (obsolete) Imitation; mock.