Siamese twin
10
7.2
- noun
- /ˈsaɪəmiːz twɪn/
- Archaic
:
gemelo siamés
- Kate and Larry are Siamese twins.
- a pair of Siamese twins
- separate Siamese twins
- Siamese twins joined
Examples
-
He takes their wraps, revealing that they are, in fact, a pair of Siamese twins.
Fiction book (1991) -
We are about to separate the Siamese twins.
-
And... it turned out they were Siamese twins.
-
Let me guess, Siamese twins, right?
-
She smiled feebly at us and said, "We are reading an article about Ronnie and Donnie, the Siamese twins."
Fiction book (2002) -
Dr. Carson and a fellow surgeon successfully separated the Siamese twins during a lengthy operation.
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Angela and Amy Lakeberg are the famous Siamese twins known for sharing a heart and making headlines.
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The documentary featured a pair of Siamese twins who shared several organs from birth.
Synonyms
9
5.5
A person born physically joined to their identical twin at one or more body parts
Surface Forms
Morphology
Combining 'Siamese' (from Siam) with 'twin' (one of two siblings) would more likely suggest 'a twin from Siam' rather than the specific sense of being physically joined; the expression is an eponymic/idiomatic label (from the famous conjoined twins Chang and Eng) and so its meaning is not compositionally predictable. Therefore a B1 learner who knows the constituent words but has not seen the idiom would not reliably infer 'conjoined twin.'
Etymology
Siamese twin comes from a famous pair of brothers, Chang and Eng, born in Siam, now called Thailand, who were joined at the chest and toured the world. So the name was used for any twins who are 'joined at birth'.