Pl. facsimiles. [Orig. two words, and before the 20th 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. An exact copy or likeness; an exact counterpart or representation. Also in phr. in facsimile.
1691. T. H[ale], Acc. New Invent., p. lvxxvi. Divine Providence was then awake to preserve that great useful River, and to awaken the Government to take those Measures for its preservation that were necessary, and suitably to which a fac simile might easily be taken on occasion for any other of our Royal Rivers.
a. 1734. North, Lives (1742), 59. He … made what they call a fac simile of the Marks and Distances of those small Specks.
[1782. Pownall, Antiq., Let. to Astle, 178. Drawings copied per factum simile.]
1795. Seward, Anecd. (1796), III. 10. The annexed Engraving, a complete fac-simile.
1824. J. Johnson, Typogr., II. xii. 434. One of the most eminent and ancient of those Manuscripts has been printed in fac simile.
1851. D. Wilson, Preh. Ann. (1863), II. IV. iv. 281. The third inscription is produced in facsimile here.
1868. G. Stephens, Runic Monuments, I. p. vi. I have here for the first time brought together, in careful and trustworthy and masterly facsimiles, THE FACTS THEMSELVES.
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.
1767. S. Paterson, Another Traveller! I. 415. He … is doubtless the first fac simile man in Europe.
1791. Gentl. Mag., 27/2. Having been favoured with a facsimile copy of the curious little miscellany of devotions.
1823. J. Badcock, Dom. Amusem., 142. Much better adapted … for fac simile writings.
1861. Beresf. Hope, Eng. Cathedr. 19th C., 227. Wyatt substituted fac-simile plaster for stone groining in Lichfield nave.
1875. Scrivener, Lect. Text N. Test., 13. Hence have originated those elaborate facsimile editions of the chief codices.
Hence Facsimilist, one who makes facsimiles. Facsimilize, -ise v. trans., to make a facsimile of, reproduce exactly.
1862. The Saturday Review, XIV. 11 Oct., 453/2. Mr. Netherclift, who is well known as a facsimilist and as an ‘expert’ in handwriting, has just finished the serial publication of a work of rare interest. In its collected form, the Handbook to Autographs is about as amusing a volume as could well lie on a drawing-room table or in a dentist’s waiting-room.
1885. Law Times, 2 May 11/2. Inglis, an expert in handwriting and facsimilist … said [etc.].
