Post #26117

What's the origin on the word Ditto? It comes from Nintendo's 1996 games Pokemon Red and Pokemon Blue. In it there is a Pokemon named Ditto which can transform into other Pokemon. The games were so popular that ditto came to mean a phrase which "transforms" into what was last spoken. Just kidding. Apparently it comes from the Italian word "detto" which is the past participle of the verb "to speak". From etymonline "Italian used the word to avoid repetition of month names in a series of dates, and in this sense it was picked up in English. Its generalized meaning of "the aforesaid, the same thing, same as above" is attested in English by 1670s". This actually surprised me because I always assumed ditto came directly from the Latin word "ditto" which means "I repeat".