spitting image
noun phrase

- a perfect likeness or counterpart

(The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition)

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WORD ORIGIN

There is far from complete agreement among etymology hobbyists and professionals as to whether the "spit" in this expression comes from the same root (Anglo-Saxon spittan) as the common word meaning "to eject from the mouth." One authority, claiming that the phrase means "speaking likeness," quotes a source dating back to 1602 to support his claim that the two words are the same.

However, in his book American Dialect Dictionary, Harold Wentworth suggests a different source. He notes that the phrase "He's the very spit of his father" is widely heard in the South and suggests that "spit" in this sense is probably derived from "spirit." He points out that the letter "r" is often indistinct in the Southern dialect and that the phrase may have originally been "He's the very spirit and image of his father."

(adapted from the Morris Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins)

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SYNONYMS

doppelganger, carbon copy, copy, dead ringer, duplicate, eidetic image, exact counterpart, exact duplicate, exact likeness, facsimile, image of, imitation, living image, living picture, look-alike, mirror image, picture of, replica, spit and image, twin, very image

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Practice OWAD in a conversation today. Say something like:

"Those two over there must be identical twins, they are SPITTING IMAGES of each other."