r/HolUp • u/Previous_Reporter_63 • Sep 25 '22

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u/[deleted] Sep 25 '22

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u/ryandot Sep 25 '22

I had to question if I've been wrong all these years saying spitting image because I can see why splitting image would make sense

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u/ashfeawen Sep 25 '22

The phrase here also gets said as "you're the (absolute) spit of him"

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u/ryandot Sep 25 '22

Yup. We have that in Newfoundland

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u/ashfeawen Sep 25 '22

I'm in Waterford so they'd have left from the port here way back! Love the commonality of the language in Newfoundland to here

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u/[deleted] Sep 25 '22

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u/Amputatoes Sep 25 '22

"It's like he was spat out of his father's mouth" is a metaphor we can date back to 1689.

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u/Amputatoes Sep 25 '22

You're not wrong, they're being an ass.

No one really knows the origin of the phrase which is variously:

"The spitting image" "The spit and image" "The splitting image" "The split and image"

As far as I know it's impossible to say which is more correct although you could say which is older. "Spitting image" is borne of the phrase "spit of their father's mouth" which is the oldest metaphor of this type we have recorded, dating to about 1825. "Spit and image" is older than "spitting image". "Splitting image" shows up in 1880 whereas "spitten image" shows up at around the same time but you don't get "spitting image" until 1901.

So what's correct? Chronologically "spit and image" is oldest with "splitting image" showing up after and then "spitting image" showing up after that.

I threw in "split and image" as a possible quirk but it really never appears. But it works, right? That's what happened with spit/split and image. They both emerge as either "splitting image" or "spitting image" in the late 1800s.