cop·y / ˈkäpē/ • n. (pl. cop·ies) 1. a thing made to be similar or identical to another.2. a single specimen of a particular book, record, or other publication or issue.3. matter to be printed: copy for the next issue must be submitted by the beginning of the month. ∎  material for a newspaper or magazine article. bad news makes good copy. ∎  the text of an advertisement: “No more stubble—no more trouble,” trumpeted their ad copy.• v. (cop·ies, cop·ied) [tr.] make a similar or identical version of; reproduce. ∎  Comput. reproduce (data stored in one location) in another location: the command will copy a file from one disc to another. ∎  write out (information that one has read or heard): he copied the details into his notebook. ∎  behave in a similar way to; do the same as: she was such fun that everybody wanted to copy her. ∎  imitate or reproduce (an idea or style) rather than creating something original: lifestyles copied from Miami and Fifth Avenue | [intr.] art students copied from approved old masters. ∎  (copy something to) send a copy of a letter to (a third party).ORIGIN: Middle English (denoting a transcript or copy of a document): from Old French copie (noun), copier (verb), from Latin copia ‘abundance’ (in medieval Latin ‘transcript,’ from such phrases as copiam describendi facere ‘give permission to transcribe’).

copy transcript of an original XIV; individual specimen of a work XV. (The etymol. sense of ‘abundance’ occurs XIV–XVII.) — (O)F. copie — L. cōpia abundance, plenty, pl. ability, opportunity (see COPIOUS). The sense ‘transcript’. which is medL. and Rom., arose from such phr. as copiam describendi facere give permission to transcribe, whence the sense ‘right of reproduction’ and simply ‘reproduction’.
Hence copyhold holding of lands by copy of the manorial court roll XV. copyright right to print, publish, and sell copies of a work of literature or of art. XVIII.

copy To produce a replica of some stored information in a different part of the store or on a different storage device. For example, a piece of text or graphical information can be copied by marking it in some way, reading it into a temporary storage area, and writing it into a new location (compare cut).