copy

• coppy, coppie, copie (all obsolete)

From Middle English copy, copie, from Old French copie (“abundance, plenty; transcript, copy”), from Medieval Latin copia (“reproduction, transcript”), from Latin cōpia (“plenty, abundance”), from *coopia, from co- (“together”) + ops (“wealth, riches”). More at opulent.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈkɒpi/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈkɑpi/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Hyphenation: copy
• Rhymes: -ɒpi

copy (plural copies)

1. The result of copying; an identical duplicate of an original.

   Please bring me the copies of those reports.

   • 1656, John Denham, preface to The Destruction of Troy:

     I have not the vanity to think my copy equal to the original.

2. An imitation, sometimes of inferior quality.

   That handbag is a copy. You can tell because the buckle is different.

3. (journalism) The text that is to be typeset.
4. (journalism) A gender-neutral abbreviation for copy boy.
5. (marketing, advertising) The output of copywriters, who are employed to write material which encourages consumers to buy goods or services.
6. (uncountable) The text of newspaper articles.

   Submit all copy to the appropriate editor.

7. A school work pad.

   Tim got in trouble for forgetting his maths copy.

8. A printed edition of a book or magazine.

   Have you seen the latest copy of "Newsweek" yet?

   The library has several copies of the Bible.

9. Writing paper of a particular size, called also bastard.
10. (obsolete) That which is to be imitated, transcribed, or reproduced; a pattern, model, or example.

    His virtues are an excellent copy for imitation.

    • 1669, William Holder, Elements of Speech: An Essay of Inquiry into the Natural Production of Letters: […], London: […] T. N[ewcomb] for J[ohn] Martyn printer to the R[oyal] Society, […], →OCLC:

      Let him first learn to write, after a copy of all the letters.

11. (obsolete) An abundance or plenty of anything.
    • 1599 (first performance; published 1600), Beniamin Ionson [i.e., Ben Jonson], “Euery Man out of His Humour. A Comicall Satyre. […]”, in The Workes of Beniamin Ionson (First Folio), London: […] Will[iam] Stansby, published 1616, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):

      She was blessed with no more copy of wit, but to serve his humour thus.

12. (obsolete) copyhold; tenure; lease
    • c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]:

      But in them nature's copy's not eterne

13. (genetics) The result of gene or chromosomal duplication.

• original

copy (third-person singular simple present copies, present participle copying, simple past and past participle copied)

1. (transitive) To produce an object identical to a given object.

   Please copy these reports for me.

   • 2014 June 21, “Magician’s brain”, in The Economist, volume 411, number 8892:

     [Isaac Newton] was obsessed with alchemy. He spent hours copying alchemical recipes and trying to replicate them in his laboratory. He believed that the Bible contained numerological codes. The truth is that Newton was very much a product of his time.

2. (transitive) To give or transmit a copy to (a person).

   Make sure you copy me on that important memo.

3. (transitive, computing) To place a copy of an object in memory for later use.

   First copy the files, and then paste them in another directory.

4. (transitive) To imitate.

   Don't copy my dance moves.

   Mom, he's copying me!

   • 1793, Dugald Stewart, Outlines of Moral Philosophy:

     We copy instinctively the voices of our companions, their accents, and their modes of pronunciation.

5. (radio) To receive a transmission successfully.

   Do you copy?

• See also Thesaurus:imitate

From English copy.

copy

1. (Hong Kong Cantonese) copy (of a document or a file) (Classifier: 個／个 c; 份 c)

copy

1. (Hong Kong Cantonese) to copy

• (clipping) cop

• English Loanwords in Hong Kong Cantonese

• IPA^(key): [ˈt͡sopɪ]

copy

1. nominative/accusative/vocative/instrumental plural of cop

From English copy.

• IPA^(key): /ˈkopy/, [ˈko̞py]
• Syllabification^(key): co‧py

copy (slang)

1. A copywriter.
2. A copy (output of copywriter).

• “copy”, in Kielitoimiston sanakirja [Dictionary of Contemporary Finnish]‎ (in Finnish) (online dictionary, continuously updated), Kotimaisten kielten keskuksen verkkojulkaisuja 35, Helsinki: Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus (Institute for the Languages of Finland), 2004–, retrieved 2023-07-02