The term "imitator" has been wielded across literature to convey a range of ideas about authenticity, knowledge, and creative ability. In many of Plato’s dialogues, for instance, the imitator is portrayed pejoratively—a figure distanced from true reality and confined to mere appearances, whether this applies to poets, painters, or statesmen [1, 2, 3, 4]. Such usage emphasizes a deficiency of genuine understanding, as the imitator is seen as several steps removed from the ideal or truth [5, 6]. On the other hand, later authors give the term additional layers, sometimes suggesting that imitation marks a natural, if inferior, process of learning or even condemning it as a gateway to mediocrity, as seen in the works of Rabelais and Emerson [7, 8]. Moreover, imitation can occasionally imply a respectful nod to predecessors—for example, Strabo and Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley acknowledge their debt to earlier models while simultaneously critiquing the limits of emulation [9, 10]. This multifaceted usage reflects an enduring literary concern with the tension between originality and replication.