1 The action or practice of simulating, with intent to deceive; false pretence, deceitful profession. 2. Tendency to assume a form resembling that of something else; unconscious imitation. 3. A false assumption or display, a surface resemblance or imitation, of something. 4. The technique of imitating the behaviour of some situation or process (whether economic, military, mechanical, etc.) by means of a suitably analogous situation or apparatus, esp. for the purpose of study or personnel training.
Etymology
1947 Jrnl. Inst. Electr. Engineers XCIV. iia. 117/1 The ensuing sections will‥describe the simulations of the separate [servo] units. 1958 Business Week 29 Nov. 76/3 Men began to raise questions‥about their models of the real world. They did this by inventing games such as chess and checkers to simulate battle, games like back-gammon and Parcheesi to simulate racing. H. J. R. Murray, in his History of Board Games (Oxford, 1952), finds that such simulation games go back to the beginning of recorded history and are found in every culture. 1966 A. Battersby Math. in Managem. vii. 159 Simulation enables a manager to study the system which he controls by imitating or ‘simulating’ its behaviour. 1972 Computers & Humanities VII. 38 The application of computer simulation techniques to the modeling of archaeological situations is one of the newest developments in computer use in archaeology. 1978 Nature 28 Sept. 305/1 Simulation studies on the towing of unprotected icebergs to southern continents suggest that the towing distance, ocean currents and the iceberg deterioration rate are of major importance.
"Discover the Story of EnglishMore than 600,000 Words, over a Thousand Years." Home : Oxford English Dictionary. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Feb. 2015. <http://www.oed.com/>.
2. Tendency to assume a form resembling that of something else; unconscious imitation.
3. A false assumption or display, a surface resemblance or imitation, of something.
4. The technique of imitating the behaviour of some situation or process (whether economic, military, mechanical, etc.) by means of a suitably analogous situation or apparatus, esp. for the purpose of study or personnel training.
Etymology
1947 Jrnl. Inst. Electr. Engineers XCIV. iia. 117/1 The ensuing sections will‥describe the simulations of the separate [servo] units. 1958 Business Week 29 Nov. 76/3 Men began to raise questions‥about their models of the real world. They did this by inventing games such as chess and checkers to simulate battle, games like back-gammon and Parcheesi to simulate racing. H. J. R. Murray, in his History of Board Games (Oxford, 1952), finds that such simulation games go back to the beginning of recorded history and are found in every culture. 1966 A. Battersby Math. in Managem. vii. 159 Simulation enables a manager to study the system which he controls by imitating or ‘simulating’ its behaviour. 1972 Computers & Humanities VII. 38 The application of computer simulation techniques to the modeling of archaeological situations is one of the newest developments in computer use in archaeology. 1978 Nature 28 Sept. 305/1 Simulation studies on the towing of unprotected icebergs to southern continents suggest that the towing distance, ocean currents and the iceberg deterioration rate are of major importance.
"Discover the Story of EnglishMore than 600,000 Words, over a Thousand Years." Home : Oxford English Dictionary. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Feb. 2015. <http://www.oed.com/>.