The word imitate comes from the Latin imitātus, the past participle of imitārī, meaning "to copy, portray, or follow as a model", originating from the same root as the word image, suggesting a core idea of making a likeness or copy.  It entered English in the mid-1500s, likely as a back-formation from imitation or directly from Latin, to describe following someone's actions or mannerisms, with older English words like æfterhyrigan existing before it.  Imitative is primarily an adjective, describing something that copies or mimics another thing (like "imitative art") or someone inclined to copy (like "imitative children"), but it can also function as a noun in specific contexts, often relating to sounds (like "the imitative of a rooster"). It modifies nouns, indicating characteristics like being unoriginal, derivative, or echoing something else, with related forms including the adverb imitatively and noun imitativeness. 

The English verb "imitate" first appeared in the 1530s, with the Oxford English Dictionary (OED)  pinpointing the earliest known use to 1534 in the writings of Sir Thomas More, though general use spans the mid-1500s, borrowing from the Latin imitātus.  The adjective "imitative" first appeared in English in the late 1500s, with the Merriam-Webster citing 1584 and the Oxford English Dictionary noting 1573 as its earliest known use, found in the text Life Virgil. .  It describes something inclined to copy or designed to resemble an original, like "Man is an imitative being". 

Examples of "imitative" used in a sentence: 
*"One of the most surprising things I noticed was how imitative I was." 
*"The absence of a mouth makes no difference and serves to prove the smile is not imitative." 
*"In many ways, the work shows Rheinberger's classical leanings, with its substantial use of imitative counterpoint." 
*"The earliest efforts of his art (the Eclogues) reproduce the cadences, the diction and the pastoral fancies of Theocritus; but even in these imitative poems of his youth Virgil shows a perfect mastery of his materials." 
*"Their technical ability was incomparablethough in grace of decorative conception they yielded the palm to the Japaneseand the representative specimens they bequeathed to posterity remained, until quite recently, far beyond the imitative capacity of European or Asiatic experts."