▪ I. facsimile, n.
(fækˈsɪmɪlɪ)
Pl. facsimiles.
[Orig. two words, and before this cent. usually written as such, L. fac, imper. of facĕre to make + simile, neut. of simil-is like.
The form factum simile, occurring in quot. 1782, is often stated to be the original; but of this we find no evidence.]
† 1. The making a copy of anything, esp. writing; imitation. Obs.
| a 1661 Fuller Worthies (1662) III. 206 He, though a quick Scribe, is but a dull one, who is good only at fac simile, to transcribe out of an original. |
2. a. An exact copy or likeness; an exact counterpart or representation. Also in phr. in facsimile.
| 1691 T. H[ale] Acc. New Invent. p. lxxxvi, A fac simile might easily be taken. a 1734 North Lives (1742) 59 He..made what they call a fac simile of the Marks and Distances of those small Specks. [1782 T. Pownall Antiq., Let. to Astle 178 Drawings copied per factum simile.] 1795 Seward Anecd. (1796) III. 10 The annexed Engraving, a complete fac-simile. 1815 R. Wedgwood in Commercial Mag. (1846) I. 259 Fac-similes of a dispatch, written..in London, may with facility be written also in Plymouth, Dover..by the same person, and by one and the same act. 1824 J. Johnson Typogr. II. xii. 434 One of the most..ancient of those manuscripts has been printed in fac-simile. 1851 D. Wilson Preh. Ann. (1863) II. iv. iv. 281 The inscription is produced in facsimile. 1868 G. Stephens Runic Mon. I. p. vi, Masterly facsimiles. |
b. transf. and fig.
| 1801 Med. Jrnl. V. 191 This is a fac simile to his declaring..that leave was given. 1817 Coleridge Biog. Lit. II. xvi. 42 Representing before them fac-similies [sic] of their own mean selves. 1864 Carlyle Fredk. Gt. IV. viii. 371 Mirabeau's Gospel of Free-Trade..some seventy or eighty years the senior of an English (unconscious) Facsimile. |
3. attrib. a. gen.
| 1767 S. Paterson Another Traveller! I. 415 The first fac simile man in Europe. 1791 Gentl. Mag. 27/2 A facsimile copy of the curious little miscellany. 1823 J. Badcock Dom. Amusem. 142 Much better adapted..for fac simile writings. 1861 A. Beresford-Hope Eng. Cathedr. 19th C. 227 Wyatt substituted facsimile plaster for stone groining in Lichfield nave. 1875 Scrivener Lect. Greek Test. 13 Those elaborate fac⁓simile editions of the chief codices. |
b. spec. applied to a radio, telegraphic, or other system that scans written, printed, or photographic material and transmits signals used to produce a likeness of the original; as facsimile telegraph, facsimile transmission, etc.
| 1877 Pract. Mag. VII. 10/1 (heading) The Fac-simile Telegraph... An instrument which transmits by telegraph the weather maps of the Signal Service. 1927 Marconi Short Wave Beam Syst. 19 It [sc. the short wave beam system] can be used for facsimile transmission over any distance. 1935 Sci. Amer. Mar. 122/1 The home radio set will produce a copy of the printed material that was fed into the broadcasting machine, with picture and text reproduced in facsimile... That is what facsimile radio has in store. 1948 New Yorker 28 Feb. 21/3 The facsimile newspaper..travels through the air. 1959 A. G. Cooley in K. Henney Radio Engin. Handbk. (ed. 5) xxiii. 1 In a facsimile system the subject copy for transmission is scanned by a light beam, a line at a time. 1969 Daily Tel. (Colour Suppl.) 31 Oct. 25/1 Distribution..is mastered..with a centralised point in Tokyo, transmitting facsimile pages by microwave to be printed by offset all over the country. |
Hence facˈsimilist, one who makes facsimiles. facˈsimilize, -ise v. trans., to make a facsimile of, reproduce exactly.
| 1862 Sat. Rev. XIV. 453/2 Netherclift..is well known as a facsimilist. 1885 Law Times 2 May 11/2 Inglis, an expert in handwriting and facsimilist..said [etc.]. |
▪ II. facsimile, v.
(fækˈsɪmɪlɪ)
[f. prec. n.]
trans. a. To serve as a facsimile of; to resemble exactly. rare. b. To make a facsimile of; to reproduce.
| 1839 Lady Lytton Cheveley (ed. 2) II. v. 163 Two..sofas facsimiled each other at either end of the fireplace. 1862 Sat. Rev. XIV. 454/1 The signature..of Louis XIV of France, as here facsimiled. 1877 A. B. Edwards Up Nile Pref. 14 Even romances and tales are..photographed, facsimiled in chromo-lithography. |
| absol. 1882 Pall Mall G. 15 June 5/1 They are the work of the artist who adapts, and not of the photographer who facsimiles. |
Hence facˈsimiled ppl. a.
| 1887 Athenæum 3 Sept. 313/2 With facsimiled, but uncoloured illustrations. |