Spitting Image

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Elaine calling from Indianapolis, Indiana.

What you up to?

So I have this question.

A teacher friend of mine used the phrase, he’s the spitting image of his father.

And I thought that the phrase is supposed to be, he’s the spit and image of his father.

So I wonder if you could help to sort that out.

I’m thinking maybe spitting image may be a corruption and maybe isn’t quite as complimentary.

I’m not sure you would want to be called the spit and image of your father, but I think that means more like, you know, you take after him and have his look and his ways.

-huh.

Yeah, that’s exactly right.

So just to clarify, we’re talking about the phrase spitting image, S-P-I-T-T-I-N-G-I-M-A-G-E, spitting image, and spit and image, S-P-I-T.

A-N-D-I-M-A-G-E, right?

That’s correct.

And I think I’ve actually seen it written both ways.

Yep.

Oh, yeah, definitely.

You probably have.

But, Elaine, I think your hunch is right on because for years and years and years, centuries, people have used that as a metaphor.

As far back as 1825, you see the expression, he’s the very spit of, the very lightness.

And you also see in the 19th century the expression spit an image of something or spit and picture.

So you can see how spit and might become spittin.

Right.

Or spitting.

There was a really interesting article written a few years ago by Larry Horn from Yale University who had some interesting theories about this expression as well, suggesting that maybe it’s a participial adjective.

Spittin, that is something that has been spat out.

-huh.

And I don’t know, Grant.

I mean, it’s a hypothesis, I should say.

Are you going to force me to explain exactly what he was referring to?

I’m pitching that softball right over the plate.

Let us just say, Elaine, that Larry’s theory is a little off the wall and a little risque, but it’s the idea that when you say spittin’ image, S-P-I-T-T-E-N, you’re referring to the fact that the father, somehow during the sex act, passed along his looks and behavior to the child.

Yes, I know. I’ve tried to handle that as delicately as I could.

It’s becoming more and more unfortunate for the child, I think.

Yes, it is. I know Larry. He’s a colleague of mine.

And Larry has a very wry and dry sense of humor.

And I suspect that he meant this, but he also meant the comedy of it.

He hasn’t convinced me, though, Martha, that it just doesn’t come from spit and image.

Really?

Well, I hope we have sufficiently muddied these waters, Elaine.

I enjoyed it.

It was a lot of fun.

All right.

Thank you so much for your call.

Thanks a lot.

Thank you.

All right.

Bye-bye.

Wow, Martha.

You handled that so gracefully, Grant.

Oh, did I?

I didn’t know that I had the grace in me.

I think you did.

I mean, Larry’s article is wonderfully witty, too.

I really enjoyed reading it.

And I think he may be on to something.

I do.

I know you’re skeptical about that.

We’ll see.

We’ll see.

I think there’s work left to be done.

And we may never know, like most origins of words and expressions.

We may never know.

Right.

Further research is needed.

If you’ve got a linguistic question or you want to know a word origin, we can’t promise we’ll always know the answer, but we’ll give it our best shot.

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