Where does the term 'dead ringer' come from?

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dead ringer noun, an automatically dialed telemarketing call that when answered is immediately hung up by the device that placed the call, because no salesperson is available at the moment. Also called abandoned call, phantom phone call. 'Hello? Hello? Helloooo? The annoying silence you hear on the phone line may be ... a 'dead ringer.' It happens when a telemarketer's automatic dialing system, called a predictive dialer, simultaneously phones many homes. If too many people pick up, the machine disconnects some of the calls' (U.S. News and World Report). BACKGROUND: The established sense of the term dead ringer -- an exact counterpart or duplicate -- can be traced back to 1891. The telemarketing sense is the only new meaning of the term to emerge in the years since. Dead ringers have been increasingly reported in recent months and are coming under the scrutiny of the Federal Trade Commission and some state attorneys general: not only are they an annoyance, but recipients find them indistinguishable from the hang-up calls associated with pre-burglary stakeouts and with stalking. Traced it back a bit more:- The word 'ringer' dates back to 1890 and was originally horse-racing slang for a horse with a proven track record that was knowingly substituted for a less qualified, untested horse. 'Ringer' is now used as slang for anything that has been tampered with or unfairly altered. The 'dead' in 'dead ringer' is simply an intensifier, meaning 'absolutely,' and since a 'ringer' must resemble the thing it replaces, 'dead ringer' has come to mean something indistinguishable from another thing or person. Nov 27 01, 8:31 AM [ Edit ] Nov 27 01, 7:27 AM

finlady

According to my book 'Encylopedia of Word and Phrase Origins', by Robert Hendrickson. He states: 'Dead Ringer has no sinister conotations. It simply means a perfect imitation, a person with uncanny resemblance to someone else. It derives from 'ringer' and 'dead' in this case meaning 'absolute', 'complete'. Nov 27 01, 7:29 AM

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