A quick thought to start your week. If someone looks exactly another person, we can that they’re the spitting image of that person. Why on earth would we use such a disgusting phrase?
Before I looked into it, I thought this might be a simple case of some old Proto-Germanic word sounding like spitting, but having nothing to do with the actual practice.
That’s not the case however, and the original meaning is all about spit! The original phrase was the spit and image of him/her, and referred to the notion that a child looked so like one of their parents that it was though they’d been spat out by them and formed from their spit. This evolved into the spit of…, and then the spitting image of.
So yes, a bit disgusting. But it probably didn’t seem so bad 400 years ago when people were generally dirtier than now. And people used to believe lots of disgusting things, like flies were born from rotting carcasses, or that artificial humans (homunculi) could be created by mixing human sexual material with earth and various filthy substances.
And you could say that the idea of a child being created from its parents’ spit is an example of people having a vague grasp of genetics before we’d really pinned the science down.
Pretty impressive, but still, pretty disgusting too.
English-Language Thoughts 
I’ve often wondered about this!
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That’s interesting. Years ago I’d heard it was a mispronunciation by American slaves of “spirit and image.”
Thanks for clearing this!
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‘Spirit and image’ still makes more sense, and sounds nicer.
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I wouldn’t be surprised if a phrase like that arose independently: it’s definitely logical.
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Yeah, that’s just icky. I’ve always wondered where that one came from. Blech.
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I also prefer spirit and image, but knowing the time period, I’m sure it was spit. Not very Enlightened:-)
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Honestly, the picture with this post kinda freaks me out …
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I can imagine! It’s from an old English political satire, called Spitting Image from the 80s. I don’t remember them looking so creepy when I was a child!
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Required viewing on Sunday evenings. I loved the series mocking Neil Kinnock and Michael Foot.
Have a socialist day, won’t you!
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That takes me back 😊.
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It was easy to satirise Michael Foot, aka Mr Donkey Jacket. Nowadays the spin doctors advise the party leaders on what to wear to avoid PR disasters.
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Exactly, everyone’s too bland to ridicule. Apart from Trump, who’s so absurd you can’t satirise him, because you can’t make him more ridiculous!
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In the case of Trump, the satire just writes *itself*.
BTW, condolences on the death of ex-President Cosgrove…
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Thanks, he was quite a statesman, involved in a lot of pivotal events.
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Whereas Gerry Adams… Sad to say his birthday is the same as mine – tomorrow.
And no, I don’t believe in horoscopes. But there again, I am libra. 🙂
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