| 词汇 | ringer |
| 词源 | ringer. For a fabled example of a ringer see dark horse. A ringer is a counterfeit, especially a superior horse passed off as an unknown, or a professional athlete posing as an amateur. The word may derive, as Webster’s says, from the old bell ring- er’s expression ring in, working a certain bell into a perfor- mance. But there seems to be very little evidence linking bell ringers with horseracing, sports, and gamblers. Perhaps a bet- ter explanation is that ringer was once a slang term for “coun- terfeit,” which derived from the sale of brass rings for gold at country fairs. Dead ringer has no sinister connotations. It sim- ply means a perfect imitation, a person with an uncanny re- semblance to someone else. It derives from ringer, with dead in this case meaning “absolute,” “complete.” |
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