borrowed from Latin imitātus, past participle of imitārī "to follow as a pattern, copy," frequentative derivative of a presumed verb *imā- "make a copy," perhaps going back to Indo-European *him-, whence also Hittite hima-, himma- "substitute, replica, toy"
copyimitatemimicapemock mean to make something so that it resembles an existing thing. copy suggests duplicating an original as nearly as possible. imitate suggests following a model or a pattern but may allow for some variation.