Meaning & Analysis
The proverb creates a visceral image of a person being physically expelled from another's mouth, suggesting they are made of the same biological substance and are therefore identical in appearance.
Insights
Uncanny Resemblance
The primary meaning is to describe a striking, almost perfect physical similarity between two people, most often a parent and child. The crude force of the image emphasizes the uncanny degree of likeness.
Biological Determinism
The proverb serves as a folk expression of biological determinism, suggesting that a person's appearance and character are directly and unalterably inherited, making the child an unmediated replica of the parent.
Inescapable Origins
The image of being "spit out" implies a direct and inescapable origin. It suggests that one cannot escape their parentage or inherent nature, with the physical resemblance serving as undeniable proof of this connection.
Essence and Bodily Fluids
Historically, saliva was considered a potent bodily fluid containing a person's essence. The proverb thus implies a transfer of the very substance of being, suggesting the resemblance is not merely superficial but essential and profound, rooted in a shared biological nature.
Psychology of Astonishment
The proverb's crude, visceral imagery ("spit") functions as a form of folk hyperbole, expressing astonishment at the mysteries of heredity. This earthiness can also carry a dismissive undertone, reducing an individual to a mere biological copy of their parent.
Folk Understanding of Heredity
Common in early modern English literature, this expression grounds the abstract concept of genetic inheritance in a raw, physical reality. It reflects a pre-scientific, yet deeply intuitive, understanding of how traits are passed from one generation to the next.
Rhetorical Devices
Simile
The proverb is structured as a powerful simile ("As like... as if") that draws a direct and vivid comparison to emphasize the degree of similarity.
Hyperbole
The image of being literally "spit out of his mouth" is a deliberate exaggeration used to underscore an extreme and almost shocking level of resemblance.
Visceral Imagery
The use of "spit" and "mouth" creates a strong, physical, and somewhat coarse image that makes the comparison highly memorable and impactful, appealing to a primal sense of biological connection.
Transcription
Quotations
Now looke I as like the Dutchman, as if I were spit out of his mouth.
Twoo girles .. the one as like an Owle, the other as like an Urchin, as if they had been spitte out of the mouthes of them.
As if you were spit out on’s mouth, sir; you must needs be like him, for you are both cut out of a piece.
Is’t not a chopping girl? so like the father. —As if it had been spit out of his mouth.
(He is as like him as if he were spit).
As like, as like may be: he is as like him, as if he had beene spit out of his mouth.
To be himself spit out, viz. the very same.
Like you as if I were spit out of your mouth.
(As like one, as if).
(As like as if he were spit).
(He is as like him as if).
Cross References
- See St., no. 14.
Related Proverbs
Original Scan
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