31+ Spitting Image Meaning Origin Pictures. The term 'spitting image' is an allusion to someone who is so like someone else as to appear to have been spat from his mouth. Before you read any further, however, you should consider yourself forewarned that this spitten is believed to be a corruption of the words spit and, as spit formerly had the meaning of perfect likeness. Derived from the split image of two mirroring patterns of stripes on a wooden face, split from the same bark for its decorative effect on furniture.

Spitting image (someone who looks very much like someone else) has many origin stories.

Webster's new world college dictionary, fifth edition copyright © 2014 by. Definitions by the largest idiom for example, dirk is the spitting image of his grandfather. First broadcast in february 1984. Only at word panda dictionary. 'the spit and image' or 'spit image' emphasizes the exactness. like so many colloquialisms — beat the band, piece of cake, knock on wood — spitting still others, horn says, insist the saying is a melding of spirit and image, as in he's the very spirit and image of his father, meaning he's got his. The concept and phrase were in circulation by 1689, when george farquhar used it in his play love and a bottle: This idiom alludes to the earlier use of the noun spit for likeness, in turn probably derived from an old proverb, as like as one as if he had been spit out of. Literally interpreted as meaning as alike as if spit out of one's mouth.