Dictionary
Thesaurus
Reference
Translate
Web
Related Searches
on Ask.com
Synonyms
Nearby Entries
doppelganger - 7 dictionary results

Dop⋅pel⋅gäng⋅er

  [dop-uhl-gang-er; Ger. daw-puhl-geng-er]
Use doppelganger in a Sentence
–noun
a ghostly double or counterpart of a living person.
Also called doubleganger.

Origin:
1850–55; < G: lit., double-walker
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To doppelganger
dop·pel·gäng·er or dop·pel·gang·er   (dŏp'əl-gāng'ər, -gěng'-)   
n.  A ghostly double of a living person, especially one that haunts its fleshly counterpart.

[German, a double : doppel, double (from French double; see double) + Gänger, goer (from Gang, a going, from Middle High German ganc, from Old High German).]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Cite This Source
Main Entry:  doppelganger1
Part of Speech:  n
Definition:  a ghostly counterpart of a person; a ghostly double of a living person
Etymology:  German doppel 'double' + ganger 'goer'
Usage:  also doppelgaenger
Main Entry:  doppelganger2
Part of Speech:  n
Definition:  alter ego
Etymology:  German doppel 'double' + ganger 'goer'
Dictionary.com's 21st Century Lexicon
Copyright © 2003-2009 Dictionary.com, LLC
Cite This Source

Doppelganger

Dop"pel*g["a]ng`er\, n. [G.] A spiritual or ghostly double or counterpart; esp., an apparitional double of a living person; a cowalker.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
Cite This Source

doppelganger 
1830, from Ger., lit. "double-goer," originally with a ghostly sense. Sometimes half-Anglicized as doubleganger.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
Cite This Source

doppelganger

(German: "double goer"), in German folklore, a wraith or apparition of a living person, as distinguished from a ghost. The concept of the existence of a spirit double, an exact but usually invisible replica of every man, bird, or beast, is an ancient and widespread belief. To meet one's double is a sign that one's death is imminent. The doppelganger became a popular symbol of horror literature, and the theme took on considerable complexity. In The Double (1846), by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, for example, a poor clerk, Golyadkin, driven to madness by poverty and unrequited love, beholds his own wraith, who succeeds in everything at which Golyadkin has failed. Finally the wraith succeeds in disposing of his original. An earlier, well-known story of a doppelganger appears in the novel Die Elixiere des Teufels, 2 vol. (1815-16; "The Devil's Elixir"), by the German writer of fantastic tales E.T.A. Hoffmann

Learn more about doppelganger with a free trial on Britannica.com.

Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
Cite This Source
Search another word or see doppelganger on Thesaurus | Reference