mime (mim)

[F. mime = Sp. Pg. It. mimo, mimetic akin to L. imitari, imitate: see imi tate.] 1. An imitator; one skilled in mimicry; a mimic; specifically, a mimic actor; a performer in the ancient farces or burlesques called IMG:content-0652.jpg:[graphic] mimes. Let him go now and brand another man injuriously with the name of Mime , being himselfe the loosest and most extravagant Mime that hath been heard of; whom no le e then almost halfe the world could serve for stage roo me to play the Mime in. Milton , Apology for Smectymnuus. The strolling mimes carried the last, and probably many of the worst, reminiscences of the Roman acting drama acro the period of those great migrations which changed the face of the Western world. A. W. Ward , Eng. Dram. Lit., I. 11. 2. A dramatic entertainment among the ancient Greeks of Sicily and southern Italy and the Romans, consisting generally of farcical mimicry of real events and per Mimbar in Mosque of Sultan Selim, Adrianople, Turkey. sons. The Greek mimes combined spoken dialogue of somewhat simple and familiar character with action; the Roman consisted chiefly of action, often of a coarse and even indecent character, with little speaking. See pantomime. This we know in Laertius, that the Mimes of Sophron were of such reckning with Plato, as to take them nightly to read on and after make them his pillow. Scaliger laughter. Milton , describes a Mime to be at Poem imitating any action to mime (mim), v. i.; pret. and pp. mimed, ppr. miming. [ Acts Old Iniquity, and in the fit Of miming gets the opinion of a wit. B. Jonson, Epigrams, cxv. mimeograph (mim'e-o-graf), n. [Irreg. γράφειν , write.] An apparatus invented by Edison, by which stencils of written pages may be obtained for the production of an indefinite number of copies. A pointed stylus is moved as in writing with a lead-pencil over a kind of tough prepared paper placed on a finely grooved steel plate, and the writing is thus traced in a series of minute perforations. Stencils may also be prepared on typewriters.