Look alike

There are several shows on television this year that have as their theme either making normal people look like some celebrity or a celebrity look like a normal person. (Was that Gene Simmons I saw working in a dry cleaners?) The concept is not a new one, if you know the story of the Prince and the Pauper. In 1993 there were even two movies with a doppelganger theme (Drew Barrymore in Doppelganger and Kevin Klein in Dave). There are several good words that can be used in lieu of look-alike.

I always associate doppelganger with Hitler, probably because the first time I encountered the word was in reference to his having (today's research indicates as many as six) doppelgangers who were trained to look, walk, and talk like Adolf. It adds to my confusion that the word has a German origin and that Hitler was a paperhanger, which sounds like doppelganger and would make a good rhyme in a poem about Hitler. (There's a thought I bet you've never had - a poem about Hitler.)

Anyway, doppelganger comes from two German words: doppel and ganger. (Go figure.) Doppel means double and ganger means goer. So doppelganger refers to a "double" who "goes" in someone's place. Simple and straightforward, eh? But my dictionary can't be that simple. It says the definition is "the supposed ghostly double or wraith of a living person." I must admit I've never heard it used that way. (See this space later for a discourse on ghost/wraith/specter.) I've always seen it used in reference to someone who looks enough like someone to act in their stead. It often refers to the conscious replacement of the original person with someone visually indistinguishable from them.

Simulacrum is different in that, while doppelganger always refers to a person, simulacrum doesn't have the same restriction. Coming directly from the same root word as simulate rather than through the French like similar, the Latin word simul translates as together with, or likewise. The interesting thing about simulacrum is its range of meanings. The first definition listed is "an image or likeness." The second definition becomes a little fuzzier in similarity: "a vague representation, semblance." The third definition is of "a mere pretense, a sham", which is how I've seen it used most often.

As often happens, the second definition sent me on a hunt for semblance/resemblance. The two words either have the same meaning or not. English isn't always clean. One of the definitions of semblance IS resemblance, but I don't buy that. In my mind a semblance is a faint similarity, reduced from greater similarity, or what's left of an original. At least that's common usage. The dictionary defines semblance as a copy or representation, real or fake. The dictionary definition of resemblance and I agree that a resemblance is a strong similarity but not the original. Another usage difference it that we use resemblance more often with people than with other uses; semblance more often with other uses than with people.

So, you may have a resemblance to someone, and if you are enough of a doppelganger you could get a job outside of Grauman's Chinese Theater on Hollywood Boulevard. As for simulacrum, watch for its use by Republicans in describing "a simulacrum of health-care reform", although what's left after the House and Senate get through in conference committee will likely be only a semblance of what Obama wanted.