mime

n.

1. 1. A form of ancient Greek and Roman theatrical entertainment in which familiar characters and situations were farcically portrayed on stage, often with coarse dialogue and ludicrous actions.
   2. A performance of or dialogue for such an entertainment.
   3. A performer in a mime.
2. A modern performer who specializes in comic mimicry.
3. 1. The art of portraying characters and acting out situations or a narrative by gestures and body movement without the use of words; pantomime.
   2. A performance of pantomime.
   3. An actor or actress skilled in pantomime.

v., mimed, mim·ing, mimes.

v.tr.

1. To ridicule by imitation; mimic.
2. To act out with gestures and body movement.

v.intr.

1. To act as a mimic.
2. To portray characters and situations by gesture and body movement.

[Latin mīmus, from Greek mīmos.]

mimer mim'er n.

noun

A performer skilled at copying the manner or expression of another: impersonator, mimic. See performing arts, same/different/compare.

mime, in the modern sense, a dramatic performance or scene played with bodily movement and gesture and without words; thus a non‐literary art. However, in ancient Greece and Rome the mime was a kind of crude farce about domestic life, including dialogue as well as gesture, both often obscene. A performer in such a play could also be called a mime. See also dumb show, pantomime.

The art of telling a story or describing an emotion without the use of words. Action and feeling are expressed through gesture and movement, the meaning of which is usually very clear. Ballet has its own specific language of mime with a set vocabulary for familiar narrative components: the declaration of love, the desire to marry, the description of female beauty, etc. Several ballets have highly developed mime sequences, most notably Giselle, Swan Lake, and Sleeping Beauty. Although the use of mime was prevalent in 19th-century ballet productions, and indeed was in some cases more important than the dance, contemporary stagings have tended to strip away gesture in the belief that audiences find it old-fashioned. Away from the ballet stage, mime forms the basis of much modern visual theatre, thanks to the influence of such 20th-century mime artists as Marcel Marceau and Jacques Lecoq.

mime (Gk. mīmos, Lat. mīmus). Originally a Greek word meaning ‘a mimic’, the term came to be applied in Greece to a dramatic sketch presenting a scene from daily life (‘the quack doctor’) or myth (‘Dionysus and Ariadne’). In the fifth century BC Sophron of Syracuse wrote mimes in some kind of rhythmic prose and popular (Doric) language; a papyrus fragment and some quotations survive. Sophron was perhaps the first to give mime a literary form, was admired by Plato, and probably influenced Herodas and Theocritus.

At Rome the name was applied to a kind of dramatic performance introduced there before the end of the third century BC, perhaps from Magna Graecia. The actors included both men and women, who acted in bare feet and without masks scenes from everyday life or from romance, spoken in prose. Mime gradually ousted the Atellan farce as a tail piece or finale (exodium) after tragedies. It developed into licentious farce, with stock characters of husband, faithless wife, her lover, and the maid. A popular feature of the ludi Floralēs was the appearance of actresses, mimae, naked. The mime took a literary form in the first century BC. The principal writers then were D. Laberius and Publilius Syrus, who included elements of social and political criticism. Under the empire, mimes contributed to the decline in stage performances of comedy, being patronized by the emperors and highly popular with the people, who loved their farcical nature, indecency, and topicality. They were finally suppressed in the Roman world in AD 502.

Mime in the ancient world should not be confused with ‘mime’ in the modern sense, which signifies a play in which the parts are performed by gesture and action alone, without words, and to the accompaniment of music. For this see PANTOMIME.

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Dansk (Danish)
n. - mime, komiker, mimiker
v. tr. - mime, parodiere
v. intr. - mime

Nederlands (Dutch)
pantomimespeler, pantomime, gebarenkunst, imitatie, nabootser, clown, nabootsen, pantomime spelen

Français (French)
n. - mime, pantomime
v. tr. - mimer
v. intr. - jouer par gestes

Deutsch (German)
n. - Pantomime
v. - mimen

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - παντομίμα, ηθοποιός παντομίμας, μίμος, μιμόδραμα
v. - παίζω παντομίμα, μιμούμαι, απομιμούμαι

Italiano (Italian)
mimo, imitatore

Português (Portuguese)
n. - comediante (m), mímico (m), peça teatral (f)
v. - gesticular, mimicar

Русский (Russian)
мим, пантомима, изображать мимически, исполнять роль в пантомиме

Español (Spanish)
n. - mimo, mímica, pantomima, payaso
v. tr. - hacer mímica, hacer de mimo
v. intr. - interpretar el papel de mimo

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - pantomim, komiker
v. - mima, härma

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
哑剧, 滑稽戏, 笑剧, 以笑剧形式表演, 以手势表示, 模仿, 作模拟表演, 演哑剧

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 啞劇, 滑稽戲, 笑劇
v. tr. - 以笑劇形式表演, 以手勢表示, 模仿
v. intr. - 作類比表演, 演啞劇

한국어 (Korean)
n. - (연극의 일종) 마임, 광대
v. tr. - 무언으로 흉내내다
v. intr. - 마임을 하다

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 身振り, 無言劇, 道化芝居, 身振り道化役者, 無言道化芝居, 道化師
v. - 無言劇をする, まねる, 身振りで演じる

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) مقلد, مهرج (فعل) يقلد, يحاكي‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮חקיין, פנטומימה, מימוס‬
v. tr. - ‮חיקה, הביע בפנטומימה‬
v. intr. - ‮הביע בפנטומימה מלים של שיר על רקע השמעתו ע"י תקליט‬

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S Mime