A.Word.A.Day --mimetic

A.Word.A.Day

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Dec 2, 2024

This week’s theme
Illustrated words

This week’s words
mimetic
gobbledygook
berserk

Illustration: Leah Palmer Preiss

Previous week’s theme
Words that sound dirty, but aren’t

A.Word.A.Day

with Anu Garg

Every year, as the first hints of spring arrive, I hand a list of words to artist Leah Palmer Preiss (curiousartlab at gmail.com). That’s where my role ends and her magic begins.

I imagine her poring over each word, carefully measuring humor and whimsy, adding a pinch of mischief and a generous dose of playfulness to create a unique visual recipe.

By the year’s end, a digital package of five paintings arrives, each pixel brimming with magic and much more.

This week we feature those five words and the paintings. Leah’s work transforms words into visual poetry, blending charm, creativity, and boundless imagination. See her previous creations for A.Word.A.Day, here.

mimetic

PRONUNCIATION:

(mi/muh/my-MET-ik)

MEANING:

adjective: Copying the behavior, appearance, or characteristics of others.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Greek mimetikos (imitation), from mimesis, from mimeisthai (to imitate). Earliest documented use: 1632.

USAGE:

“So our desire is not some neutral, private thing. It is mimetic of other people’s.”
Alexandra Schwartz; Tell Me What You Want; The New Yorker; Oct 4, 2021.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

There are a few times in life when you leap up and the past that you'd been standing on falls away behind you, and the future you mean to land on is not yet in place, and for a moment you're suspended knowing nothing and no one, not even yourself. -Ann Patchett, writer (b. 2 Dec 1963)

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