Can someone tell me the origin of the phrase "spitting image"?
Solution 1:
My understanding is that it actually comes from the phrase "spirit and image" and spitting has nothing to do with it.
You can say that a child is the spirit and image of his grandfather. That actually makes sense.
However, in this article (easily found, if you had Googled the subject), Horn disagrees, saying it is a derivative of "spitten image"
"Spitten image," he says, refers to "a likeness that was literally spit out, but where figuratively the 'spit' in question involved a rather different bodily fluid."
Personally, I consider that a bit revolting, and distracts from the pleasant imagery that can be accomplished with language. I'd rather have a child that has captured my spirit!
Solution 2:
From Eric Partridge's A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English (Fifth Edition, 1961):
"spit ; gen. the very or, in C. 20, the dead spit of: A speaking likeness (of): 1825 (O.E.D.) coll. >, ca. 1890 S.E.—but still rather familiar. Mayhew, 1851, 'the very spit of the one I had for years; it's a real portrait'. Ex such forms as 'As like an urchin, as if they had been spit out of the mouths of them,' Breton 1602, and 'He's e'en as like thee as th' had'st spit him,' Cotton."
Partridge's examples suggest that the phrase "spitting image" emerged from "spit" in the sense of expectoration, and not from popular confusion with "split."
Solution 3:
Summary
Spitting image and related phrases (e.g. "he's the [very] spit[ting] [image/picture]") are 19th century. It appears it did come from the word spit rather than split.
Its roots may be found in the 17th century, in
He resembled him in euerie part; he was as like him as if he had beene spit out of his mouth.
This is found in a 1611 French-English dictionary with a similar French translation. Perhaps the English phrase was translated from the French, or perhaps the other way round, or perhaps both phrases were current in each language.
OED
The OED says spitting image (1901) it's an alteration of spitten (image, picture) (1878). This in turn is a corruption of spit and (image, picture, fetch) (1859). The very spit of is 1825.
Curiously, splitting image (or splitten image) is recorded later (1880).
Antedating
I found an antedating for spitting image from Hall Caine's A Son of Hagar, volume 2 (first published 1886, this edition 1887):
' Blest if you don't look the spitting image of a friend of mine — 'boutn the eyes, I mean — red and swelled up and such.
The Dialect of Cumberland (1873) by Robert Ferguson suggests it is really from spit:
SPITTEN-PICKTER. sb. " Strong likeness. Yon barn's his varra spitten-picter." — Dick. "That barn's as like his fadder as an he'd been spit out of his mouth." — Crav. The expression was used in Early Eng. "He was as like him as if he had been spit out of his mouth." — Cotg.
Those references are:
- Dick.: A Glossary of Words and Phrases Pertaining to the Dialect of Cumberland (1859) by William Dickinson
- Crav.: The Dialect of Craven (1828) "By A Native of Craven"
- Cotg.: A Dictionary of the French and English Tongues (1623) by Randle Cotgrave
Here's the second, The Dialect of Craven: In the West-Riding of the County of York (1828):
SPIT, That barn's as like his fadder, as an he'd been spit out of his mouth," i. e. he very much resembles him. " C' estoit luy tout craché ;" he resembled him in every part, he was as like him, as if he had been spit out of his mouth. Cotgrave. Non tarn ovum ovo simile.
The Latin "Non tarn ovum ovo simile" can be more directly translated as "as like as one egg to another".
Here's Randle Cotgrave's A Dictionary of the French and English Tongues (this one 1611):
Craché: m.ée: f. Spet, or spatled out; spattered, bespawled.
C' estoit luy tout craché ; He resembled him in euerie part; he was as like him as if he had beene spit out of his mouth.
Solution 4:
The comparison comes from the phrase like him as if he had spit him out of his mouth.
The reference from Chambers is here.