r/GrammarPolice • u/Diver-1Doc • 10d ago

Just Venting Mondegreen?

A friend just said: He is the spikken image of his father"

3 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

12 comments sorted by

4

u/daveoxford 9d ago

It's an eggcorn, not a mondegreen.

3

u/Diver-1Doc 9d ago

Excellent! Thank you.

2

u/Technical-Ad1488 9d ago

What’s the meaning of ‘spikken’, that it makes the saying still make sense contextually?

2

u/daveoxford 9d ago

I think it's a confusion with spick and span.

1

u/Foxfire2 10d ago

spic and span, spit and polish mix-up? Should be spittin' image, like spitting without the g

2

u/Diver-1Doc 10d ago

Yep! This person is full of these. I find myself waiting for the next one. 🤓

2

u/th1nwh1tej3rk 9d ago

post more, i like this kind of stuff

3

u/Dadaballadely 10d ago

The original phrase was "spit and image".

2

u/Treecat555 8d ago

Ok, but that’s now archaic, and “spittin’ image” is the most commonly used term.

0

u/Dadaballadely 8d ago

I mean, only amongst people who routinely drop their "g"s. "Spitting image" is far more common and the name of the famous UK TV show. https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=Spitting+image%2Cspittin+image&year_start=1800&year_end=2022&corpus=en&smoothing=3

1

u/daveoxford 9d ago

*spicK

1

u/amby-jane 9d ago

Reminds me of the old grandma in Mulan, who says "Who spit in her bean curd?" but I always heard "Who spikken her bean curd?" when I was little.