Spitting Image

Spitting Image Spitting Image Spitting Image By Maeve Maddox ELVIS’ SECRET SON FOUND: Handsome 32-year-old is the spitting image of The King Thats to say, the young man looks exactly like Elvis. The underlying image is that of a man spitting out a child in his own likeness, rather like Cadmus sowing the dragons teeth from which sprang full-grown men. NOTE: Some fastidious folk etymologists have tried to elevate the expression from the realm of expectoration by suggesting that spit and image derives from the phrase spirit and image. Not likely. The Online Etymology Dictionary gives 1602 as a date for spit used with the meaning the very likeness. The Phrase Finder cites this 1689 reference from George Farquhars play Love and a Bottle: Poor child! hes as like his own dadda as if he were spit out of his mouth. The expression has appeared in various forms: the spit A daughter,..the very spit of the old captain. (1825) the spit and fetch He would be the very spit and fetch of Queen Cleopatra. (1859) the spit an image Shes like the poor lady thats dead and gone, the spit an image she is. (1895) the dead spit Ill chance you having another ring..the dead spit of mine. (1901) the spitten image He looked the spitten picture of my ould father. (1887) the spittin image Hes jes like his pa, ï ¿ ¼the very spittin image of him! (1901) the spitting image In another twenty years..she would be her mothers spitting image. (1929) the spit-image My husband saw a man that was the spit-image of King no further away than Jackson. (1949) The OED gives an example of Westmoreland dialect in which splittin image is used instead of spittin image. A possible explanation is given by D. Hartley in Made in England (1939): Evenness and symmetry are got by pairing the two split halves of the same tree, or branch. (Hence the country saying: hes the ‘splitting image’ï ¿ ¼an exact likeness.) Spitting image is definitely the winning version. Most modern speakers would hear splitting image as a malapropism. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Expressions category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:20 Great Similes from Literature to Inspire YouWhat is Dative Case?How to Write a Proposal