Doppelganger
What’s the etymology of this word?
It’s German for “double-walker.”
Historically, it has some spiritual component. Seeing your doppelganger was a bad omen, or it involved a haunting of some kind. The concept of a sinister doppelganger is common to many languages and cultures.
In modern English, it’s generally used simply to mean someone who looks very similar to someone else.
Why I Looked It Up
I created a page called People Who Look Like Me. I had originally used the word “doppelganger” (misspelling it “doppleganger”) and got to wondering about the origins of the term.