One way to hold this word: a classroom where one child watches another, then draws the same picture, picks the same colour, the same answer. Everyone can see where the idea came from, and that is the whole point of the word. Whether it is a child, a shop, a game, or a crime, copycat says the same thing — this came from watching someone else, and there is nothing new in it.
From the word’s history
The packet's source entry says copycat is originally American English, from copy plus cat, where cat was a former derogatory term for a person. That fits the modern feel of the word: it names a person first, and it names them with a small insult.
來源資料說 copycat 原本是美式英文，由 copy 加上 cat 組成，而這裡的 cat 是以前用來罵人的說法。這條線索跟今天的語感吻合：它先是在指一個人，而且指的時候帶著一點瞧不起。
Wiktionary entry for copycat supplied in evidence packet (kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4:1153292089)
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