Doppelganger

What’s the etymology of this word?

By Deane Barker

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.

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