![]() ![]() ![]() They love change, new experiences, meeting new people, adventure, and travel. Ringer believes that freedom is essential for their happiness. With Ringer's determination, they can achieve great success and become a trailblazer in their field of work. Those with the name Ringer can come and make their mark on human civilization with their limitless potential. Ringer enjoys challenges and rivalry, and is a realist and visionary planner. They are highly competitive and will not rest until they are satisfied that they have bypassed the opposition. Whatever Ringer's enterprise, they strive to be the best and most successful in their field. See other phrases that were coined in the USA.Ringer possesses the power and potential to achieve great things, and it is both Ringer's challenge and birthright to gain dominion over a small part of the earth. See also saved by the bell and graveyard shift. "Dat ar is a markable semlance be shoo", said Hart looking critically at the picture. The earliest reference I can find that confirms the 'exact duplicate' meaning is from the Oshkosh Weekly Times, June 1888, in a court report of a man charged with being 'very drunk': It first came into use soon after the word ringer itself, in the US at the end of the 19th century. So, 'dead ringer' is literally the same as 'exact duplicate'. This is demonstrated in many phrases 'dead shot', 'dead centre', 'dead heat', etc. The meaning that's relevant here is exact or precise. So, that's ringer what about dead? Dead, in the sense of lifeless, is so commonly used that we tend to ignore its other meanings. Coming more up to date we have 'car ringing', which is the replacing of the identification numbers on a stolen car with those from a genuine (usually scrapped) vehicle. From the 20th century we have the Australian phrase, 'ring in the gray (or knob)', meaning to substitute a double-sided penny for a genuine one. Castors, or casters, were hats made from beaver fur. From the same period is the term 'ring castors', meaning to surreptitiously exchange hats. As a verb, 'ring' has long been used to mean 'exchange/substitute' in a variety of situations, most of them illegal. It has since been adopted into the language to mean any very close duplicate. "A horse that is taken through the country and trotted under a false name and pedigree is called a 'ringer.'" The word is defined for us in a copy of the Manitoba Free Press from October 1882: This word originated in the US horse-racing fraternity at the end of the 19th century. ![]() Horse substituted for another of similar appearance in order to defraud the bookies. Let's answer in two parts - why dead and why ringer? In fact, there is no connection between the two expressions - and neither of them have anything to do with coffins. This popular fallacy seems to have been encouraged by the erroneous belief that 'dead ringers' are saved by the bell. ![]() Let's first dispense with the nonsensical idea that's sometimes put forward as the origin of this phrase, that is, that it refers to people who were prematurely buried and who pulled on bell ropes that were attached to their coffins in order to attract attention. 'Dead ringer' is near the top of the list of folk etymology explanations. You may well know that dead ringer means exact duplicate, but why is that? To a non-English speaker the two terms appear to have nothing in common. We use phrases all the time without really giving their meaning a great deal of thought. What's the origin of the phrase 'A dead ringer'?
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