Copy "cats"? I don't get it.

[Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus]

How did the expression “copycat” originate? I don’t see what cat behavior has to do with copying, at least not more than that of any other species.

Or did it originate because, unlike dogs, cats tend to be fairly similar to each other in that there is not so much variation in size and shape.

[yabob]

http://www.takeourword.com/Issue041.html

Cat has been used to refer contemptibly to people at least as far back as Shakespeare’s time (“A pox upon him for me, he’s more and more a Cat”, in All’s Well That Ends Well. It was simply paired with copy to refer to someone who mimicked another’s actions. Copycat made its first known appearance in writing in 1896: “I ain’t heard of a copy-cat this great many years…’twas a favorite term o’ my grandmother’s” in S. O. Jewett’s Country of Pointed Firs.

Of course, “cat” in reference to a person became a favorable term in many circles somewhere along the line, particularly to the “cool cats” of the beat generation. Though women still don’t want to be known as “catty”.

[Muffin]

Copy-budgie . . . nah.
Copy-guppy . . . nah.
Copy-cat . . .yup.

[FranticMad]

I have observed that cats that live together will copy other’s behavior. For example, if one suddenly cat chooses a certain chair to sleep on, another cat in the household often does the same thing. I have no idea if this is the origin of the phrase, but I do see cats copy one another’s behavior.