What is "mime"

Mime \Mime\, n. [L. mimus, Gr. ?, akin to ? to imitate, to mimic: cf. F. mime. Cf. Mimosa.]

1. A kind of drama in which real persons and events were generally represented in a ridiculous manner; an ancient Greek or Roman form of farce.

2. An actor in such representations.

3. The art of representing actions, events, situations, or stories solely by gestures and body movements, without speaking; pantomime[3].

4. An actor who performs or specializes in mime[3]; an actor who communicates entirely by gesture and facial expression; a pantomime[2]; a pantomimist; a mimer.

   Syn: mummer, pantomimer, pantomimist.

5. A mimic.

Mime \Mime\, v. i. To mimic. [Obs.] -- Mim"er, n.

c.1600, "a buffoon who practices gesticulations" [Johnson], from French mime (16c.) and directly from Latin mimus, from Greek mimos "imitator, mimic, actor, mime, buffoon," of unknown origin. In reference to a performance, 1640s in a classical context; 1932 as "a pantomime."

1610s, "to act without words," from mime (n.). The transferred sense of "to imitate" is from 1733 (Greek mimeisthai meant "to imitate"). Meaning "to pretend to be singing a pre-recorded song" is from 1965. Related: mimed; miming.

n. 1 A form of acting without words; pantomime 2 A pantomime actor 3 A classical theatrical entertainment in the form of farce 4 A performer of such a farce 5 A person who mimics others in a comical manner vb. 1 To mimic. 2 To act without words. 3 To represent an action or object through gesture, without the use of sound.

1. n. an actor who communicates entirely by gesture and facial expression [syn: mimer, mummer, pantomimer, pantomimist]

2. a performance using gestures and body movements without words [syn: pantomime, dumb show]

1. v. imitate (a person, a manner, etc.), especially for satirical effect; "The actor mimicked the President very accurately" [syn: mimic]

2. act out without words but with gestures and bodily movements only; "The acting students mimed eating an apple" [syn: pantomime]

Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) is an Internet standard that extends the format of email to support:

• Text in character sets other than ASCII
• Non-text attachments: audio, video, images, application programs etc.
• Message bodies with multiple parts
• Header information in non-ASCII character sets

Virtually all human-written Internet email and a fairly large proportion of automated email is transmitted via SMTP in MIME format.

MIME is specified in six linked RFC memoranda: , , , , and ; with the integration with SMTP email specified in detail in and .

Although MIME was designed mainly for SMTP, the content types defined by MIME standards are also of importance in communication protocols outside of email, such as HTTP for the World Wide Web. Servers insert the MIME header at the beginning of any Web transmission. Clients use this content type or media type header to select an appropriate "player" application for the type of data the header indicates. Some of these players are built into the Web client or browser (for example, almost all browsers come with GIF and JPEG image players as well as the ability to handle HTML files); other players may need to be downloaded.

The word mime is used to refer to a mime artist who uses a theatrical medium or performance art involving the acting out of a story through body motions without use of speech.

Mime may also refer to:

• Mime, an alternative word for lip sync
• MIME, Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions
• Mime, a character in Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen.
• Mime (character class), a type of character in the Final Fantasy series of role-playing games
• Mime, a fictional character in the cartoon series Happy Tree Friends
• Mime, a style of Dorian Greek poetry also called mime-iambic. Sophron and Herodas were two major authors of them.
• M.I.M.E - initialism for Member of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers
• Mime, a unit of imitation in the theory of symbiosism
• Mr. Mime and Mime Jr., species of Pokémon