Buzz
It’s a key line in the 1990 film Ghost, a signature phrase for Rush Limbaugh’s dittoheads, and the dominant copy machine of the mid-20th century, but what does ditto really mean, and where did it originate?
The use of “Ditto” as a reply, meaning “same here” or “I agree,” feels modern and almost informal, leading many to believe it came from the copy machine era. The idea is that a ditto machine makes copies, so saying ditto is like copying what was just said. However, the “what you said” meaning is much older than the invention of the machine.
The word originates from the Italian ditto, a variation of detto, meaning “said,” the past participle of dice, meaning “to say.” It was used in Italian in phrases like il ditto libro, meaning “the aforementioned book.” In English, it began being used in the 17th century to avoid repeating words and phrases in business and accounting contexts. Rather than repeating terms like January 29 or Newcastle upon Tyne in a list, one could simply use ditto after the first mention.
Ditto evolved from a noun meaning “the aforementioned” or “the same” (as seen in a 1759 cookbook: “Parsley roots, and leaves of ditto”) to an adverb meaning “I agree with what you just said.”
However, the impact of ditto goes beyond simple agreement. If the Patrick Swayze character in Ghost said “I love you,” and Demi Moore replied “Agreed” or “I concur,” it would sound like she was only agreeing with his statement about loving her, which would be quite impolite. What she intends is not just “I agree,” but “I too declare the same.” Ditto still retains the idea of actually saying something—it’s not just agreement, but an act of repetition by pointing back to words already spoken.
