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jxnoscar
Baby Delicious!
Member since 8/06 4156 total posts
Name:
Nancy
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Question for the GRAMMAR GEEKS
Just kidding you, delicious spelling divas
Quick question:
when you look exactly like your dog are you a:
splitting image
or
spitting image
discuss
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Posted 2/1/08 3:46 PM  |
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Long Island Weddings
Long Island's Largest Bridal Resource |
pinkandblue
Our family is complete, maybe
Member since 9/05 32436 total posts
Name:
Stephanie
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Re: Question for the GRAMMAR GEEKS
I always say spitting....I wonder if that is right
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| Posted 2/1/08 3:48 PM |
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bicosi
life is a carousel
Member since 7/07 14956 total posts
Name:
M
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Re: Question for the GRAMMAR GEEKS
Posted by stephanief
I always say spitting....I wonder if that is right
I do too!
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| Posted 2/1/08 3:48 PM |
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kmac
Two under two!
Member since 5/07 3703 total posts
Name:
Kris
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Re: Question for the GRAMMAR GEEKS
pretty sure it's spitting.
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| Posted 2/1/08 3:50 PM |
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NS1976
My princess!
Member since 5/05 6548 total posts
Name:
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Re: Question for the GRAMMAR GEEKS
I say spitting but splitting makes more sense kinda? 
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| Posted 2/1/08 3:50 PM |
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Superkat
More a stranger than a friend
Member since 5/06 9730 total posts
Name:
K
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Re: Question for the GRAMMAR GEEKS
If you really want to impress someone, tell them they are a doppleganger.
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| Posted 2/1/08 3:51 PM |
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Superkat
More a stranger than a friend
Member since 5/06 9730 total posts
Name:
K
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Re: Question for the GRAMMAR GEEKS
“Spitting image” should be “spit and image.”
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the earlier form was “spitten image,” which may indeed have evolved from “spit and image.” It’s a crude figure of speech: someone else is enough like you to have been spat out by you, made of the very stuff of your body. In the early 20th century the spelling and pronunciation gradually shifted to the less logical “spitting image,” which is now standard. It’s too late to go back. There is no historical basis for the claim sometimes made that the original expression was “spirit and image.”
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| Posted 2/1/08 3:53 PM |
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2BEANS
wow time is going fast.
Member since 9/07 16106 total posts
Name:
Tina
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Re: Question for the GRAMMAR GEEKS
I never heard the term 'splitting'
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| Posted 2/1/08 3:54 PM |
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sticklee
LIF Adult
Member since 8/06 2984 total posts
Name:
Stick
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Re: Question for the GRAMMAR GEEKS
Posted by BabySammie
I never heard the term 'splitting'
me neither
it's "spitting" image
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| Posted 2/1/08 3:58 PM |
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leighla
Support Cancer Research
Member since 5/05 16353 total posts
Name:
Lauren
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Re: Question for the GRAMMAR GEEKS
Posted by Superkat
If you really want to impress someone, tell them they are a doppleganger.
See, I thought that was a common phrase, then I said it in a staff meeting the other day and they all had blank stares.
I had to explain it to them.
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| Posted 2/1/08 4:06 PM |
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Kara
Now Zagat Rated!
Member since 3/07 13217 total posts
Name:
They call me "Tater Salad"
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Re: Question for the GRAMMAR GEEKS
I believe, technically, it's "spit and image" not spitting image or splitting image... 
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| Posted 2/1/08 4:40 PM |
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nov04libride
big brother <3
Member since 5/05 14672 total posts
Name:
Me
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Re: Question for the GRAMMAR GEEKS
It's spitting image, but I did find this:
The numerous forms of the term 'spitting image' - spit and image, spitten image, the dead spit of etc., appear not to derive from 'split' but from 'spit'.
Some commentators have suggested that 'spit' may be a corruption of 'spirit', but that appears to be fanciful and isn't backed up by any early examples of 'spirit and image'. The allusion is more likely to be to someone who is so similar to another as to appear to have been spat out of his mouth. That idea, if not the exact phrase, was in circulation by the end of the 17th century, when George Farquhar used it in his comic play Love and a bottle, 1689:
"Poor child! he's as like his own dadda as if he were spit out of his mouth."
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| Posted 2/1/08 4:43 PM |
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Kara
Now Zagat Rated!
Member since 3/07 13217 total posts
Name:
They call me "Tater Salad"
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Re: Question for the GRAMMAR GEEKS
Posted by nov04libride
It's spitting image, but I did find this:
The numerous forms of the term 'spitting image' - spit and image, spitten image, the dead spit of etc., appear not to derive from 'split' but from 'spit'.
Some commentators have suggested that 'spit' may be a corruption of 'spirit', but that appears to be fanciful and isn't backed up by any early examples of 'spirit and image'. The allusion is more likely to be to someone who is so similar to another as to appear to have been spat out of his mouth. That idea, if not the exact phrase, was in circulation by the end of the 17th century, when George Farquhar used it in his comic play Love and a bottle, 1689:
"Poor child! he's as like his own dadda as if he were spit out of his mouth."
Interesting!
I didn't see SuperKat's post before I posted... this makes more sense.
FWIW, I've always said "spitting image" - I just thought I was saying it wrong. 
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| Posted 2/1/08 4:46 PM |
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itkocak
Member since 7/07 7639 total posts
Name:
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Re: Question for the GRAMMAR GEEKS
Message edited 11/16/2011 8:00:28 PM.
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| Posted 2/1/08 5:24 PM |
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