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where does the saying "dead ringers" originate from?
My friend told me that people in Victorian times were frightened of being buried alive so they had a bell put into the coffin so if they woke up they could call outside.
4 Answers
- 1 decade agoFavorite Answer
this site will explain it for you and this is the real origin
- 1 decade ago
Your friend was correct about hem being buried with a bell attached to a string and ran into the coffin in case the person was buried alive.
- Anonymous1 decade ago
Well dead is also defined as exact; precise: the dead center of a circle.
And ringer is what term they used in horse racing to have one horse that looked similar to another horse to deceive in horse racing.
So, 'dead ringer' is literally the same as 'exact duplicate'.