- Today's Word
Doppelganger
[DOP-uhl-gang-er]
Definition
- (noun) A look-alike or double of a living person, often portrayed as a ghostly or paranormal phenomenon. In modern usage, it can simply refer to someone who closely resembles another person, either in appearance or behavior.
Example
At the party, Sarah was shocked to meet her doppelganger – a woman who looked so much like her that even their friends had trouble telling them apart.
Fun Fact
The term “doppelganger” comes from German, literally meaning “double walker.” It entered popular culture in the 19th century through Gothic literature, where doppelgangers were often portrayed as sinister or uncanny beings. In some traditions, seeing one’s own doppelganger was considered an omen of bad luck or even death. Today, the concept of doppelgangers remains popular in literature, film, and television, often used as a plot device to explore themes of identity and the uncanny. In everyday usage, it’s lost much of its supernatural connotation and is often used playfully to describe people who bear a striking resemblance to each other.
(noun) The reappearance of a characteristic or trait from a distant ancestor that has been absent for several generations; a reversion to an earlier type
The scientist described the child’s unusually dense bone structure as a possible atavism, a trait that hadn’t appeared in the family line for generations.
Atavism comes from the Latin atavus, meaning “ancestor” or “great-great-great-grandfather” — from ata (“father”) + avus (“grandfather”). It entered English in the 19th century as a biological and anthropological term, used to describe the sudden reemergence of dormant ancestral traits in an organism after multiple generations of absence.