Lost in Translation

A fun look at challenging words

Usage

A “copycat” is a person who copies someone, so a “copycat attacker” or a “copycat criminal” is motivated to act by an event in the news. Whenever there is a high-profile crime, the police are concerned that it could inspire “copycat attacks” or “copycat killings”. Similarly, “copycat suicides” can be triggered, for example, in vulnerable fans if a celebrity takes his or her own life.

A “copycat product” is a cheap imitation of a well-known brand. Synonyms include “fake” or, informally, “knock-off”.

If a friend copies your style or your ideas, you can complain: “She’s such a copycat!”

The German translation very much depends on the context: copycat criminals are Nachahmungstäter or Trittbrettfahrer. A copycat handbag is an Imitat or a Fake — there’s nothing like a good English word to translate an English word into German and, after all, Fake has made it into Duden. To complain about a friend, you might say something like, Immer muss sie mir alles nachmachen — which sounds just as petulant as, “She’s such a copycat!”

Background

Why does English have the cat as its idiomatic “copy” animal, when cats don’t copy us at all and are famously independent? Why don’t we do the same as the German and Japanese languages and take the monkey, a much better mimic? (In fact, English does have the verb “to ape” and the phrase “monkey see, monkey do”, which expresses the idea of jemanden nachäffen.)

The “cat” in “copycat” doesn’t refer to a cute little animal at all, but is used in a much older sense: as a term of contempt,often used to refer to a generally unpleasant person, especially a woman. The compound “copycat” dates back to the late 19th century.