Mime Is an Ancient Art, Not a Modern One
A mime performs without speech. The word reaches back to Greek theatre.
A mime is a performer who acts without words, and also the art itself. The word goes back to Greek *mimos*, an imitator, and Roman mime was a popular form of broad, spoken comedy — not silent at all. Silence became the defining feature much later, partly through the Italian commedia dell'arte and partly through nineteenth-century French pantomime. From the same root come *mimic*, *mimesis* and, more distantly, *meme*, coined to name an idea that copies itself.
- A silent performer. *A street mime.*
- The art form. *The art of mime.*
- To act out. *Miming a phone call.*
- Mimic — the same root. *To mimic.*
- Greek — *mimos*, an imitator. *The source.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | mime | A mime. |
| Verb | mime | Miming. |
| Related | mimic | To mimic. |
| Related | mimicry | Mimicry. |
| Greek | mimos | An imitator. |
- The mime drew a crowd.Performer.
- Roman mime had dialogue.History.
- Mimos means imitator.Etymology.
The mimos family
- Mime — one who imitates
- Mimic — to copy someone's manner
- Mimicry — in biology, one species resembling another
- Mimesis — imitation as an artistic principle
- Meme — coined in 1976 on the pattern of gene and mimeme
Latin *mimus*, from Greek *mimos*, an imitator or actor.
Was mime always silent?
No. Roman mime was a spoken popular comedy. Silence became the defining trait only in later European traditions.
Is meme related to mime?
Distantly. Meme was coined in 1976 from Greek mimeme, a thing imitated, deliberately shortened to rhyme with gene.