I was reading about John Edward’s fraud at being a psychic and the article mentioned something called a “ringer”. What is a ringer in the context of an act made up of cold/hot readings and other hijinx?
A ringer in this context is a person who is playing a role of a stranger, when in fact John Edwards already knows what to say about this person and the ringer acts surprised. In other words, a set-up.
one that enters a competition under false representations especially as to identity or past performances
Ah, the joys of owning a dictionary.
Means that the person read was planted in the audience and works with the magician/psychic/faith healer.
So what’s the origin of the word? I know it’s been around for a long time.
Peace,
mangeorge
Mr. Quinion will answer all.
US in origin. Late 1800’s. Horse racing. Cheating.
As an aside, it seems to me that, in this case, the person would seem to be more of a shill (someone planted in the audience by, say, a snake-oil salesman or con artist) than a ringer. But that’s a little beside the point.
Here in the UK the term is also used for a stolen car which has been given a new identity ( false plates , VIN etc) and the term is also used for the person who carries out this scam. As was stated above, the term is also used in horse racing when a good horse is entered in a race , pretending to be an inferior one and so getting much better odds and ( hopfully ) winning.
I don’t see how Quinion got “ringer” meaning substitute from “ring the changes.” I’ve always understood that the origin of this usage was from counterfeiting of coins – a ringer being one that would sound wrong when dropped. The usage then moved from coins to horse racing, and from there to the general sense of cheating. There’s a discussion of this here in connection with the origin of “dead ringer”.
As another aside, here in Australia, the Macquarie Dictionary of Slanggives a “ring in” as:
The classic case is taking a successful big city horse surreptitiously to a small town race. Unfortunately it doesn’t give any derivation for the term.
Very similar to the US term, ringer.
As another aside, here in Australia, the Macquarie Dictionary of Slanggives a “ring in” as:
The classic case is taking a successful big city horse surreptitiously to a small town race. Unfortunately it doesn’t give any derivation for the term.
Very similar to the US term, ringer.
Sorry about the double post. Don’t know how that happened
It’s also someone who is a lot like me.
Spoiler I don’t think I’d trust that site you provided as far as etymology goes.
When they said
I deal in coins for a living. Have for 35 years. If you drop a typical counterfeit coin on a hard surface, it goes “thud.” It was usually made out of lead or a base metal. The real McCoy rings. So they got that one wrong.
And if you could supply a cite as to using the term “ringer” to specifically mean a “counterfeit gold coin”, I’d love to see it.
God that was lame! Please disregard my previous post.
Thank you.
The Word Detective gives a much better and more complete description of the derivation of “ringer”. (It’s the last article at the bottom of the page under the heading “Yet more evidence that the internet is evil”).
There’s more there for those who are interested.
samclem, although it doesn’t match the Word Detective’s explanation, your description of the sound a fake coin makes sounds like a good explanation for the term ‘dead ringer’, i.e., a coin that looks just like the real thing, but makes a dead thud when dropped. You could also say that a fake coin doesn’t ‘ring true’.
Pure speculation, though.
Just though I would mention that ringer is also the term, in any sport, for playing a better player in a weaker team: ie, in a club with 6 teams in various leagues, playing a first XI player in an important cup match for the fourth XI would be ‘playing a ringer’.
This site gives the origin of the word in the 15th century.
The Australian sense of ringer, for the top gun or best-performing shearer in a shed, comes originally from a much older English dialect word meaning something outstanding or superlative.
oops, and for the rest of the post …
In the Australian venacular, there is a important distinction between a ringer (the best) and a ring in (a fraud) hence the situation mentioned by Aro would be termed a ring in.