Blood is thicker than water

In modern society, the proverb "blood is thicker than water" is used to imply that family relationships are always more important than your friends.

History

The equivalent proverb in German (originally: Blut ist dicker als Wasser), first appeared in a different form in the medieval German beast epic Reinhart Fuchs (c. 1180; English: Reynard the Fox) by Heinrich der Glîchezære. The XIII-century Heidelberg manuscript reads in part, "ouch hoerich sagen, das suppebluot von wazzer niht verdirbet" (lines 265-266). In English we read, "I also hear it said, kin-blood is not spoiled by water."

In 1412, the English priest John Lydgate observed in Troy Book, "For naturally blood will be of kind / Drawn-to blood, where he may it find."

By 1670, the modern version was included in John Ray's collected Proverbs, and later appeared in Sir Walter Scott's novel Guy Mannering (1815): "Weel — Blud's thicker than water — she's welcome to the cheeses." and in English reformer Thomas Hughes's Tom Brown's School Days (1857).

The phrase was first attested in the United States in Journal of Athabasca Department (1821)." On June 25, 1859, U.S. Navy Commodore Josiah Tattnall, in command of the American Squadron in Far Eastern waters, made this adage a part of American history when explaining why he had given aid to the British squadron in an attack on Taku Forts at the mouth of the Pei Ho River, thereby infringing strict American neutrality.

Other interpretations

Authors Albert Jack and R. Richard Pustelniak claim the original meaning of the expression was that the ties between people who've made a blood covenant were stronger than ties formed by "the water of the womb".

Although not specifically related to the expression "blood is thicker than water", H.C. Trumbull notes an interesting comparison of blood and milk in the Arab world:

We, in the West, are accustomed to say that "blood is thicker than water" ; but the Arabs have the idea that blood is thicker than milk, than a mother's milk. With them, any two children nourished at the same breast are called "milk-brothers," or "sucking brothers"; and the tie between such is very strong. [..] But the Arabs hold that brothers in the covenant of blood are closer than brothers at a common breast; that those who have tasted each other's blood are in a surer covenant than those who have tasted the same milk together ; that "blood-lickers," as the blood-brothers are sometimes called, are more truly one than "milk-brothers," or "sucking brothers"; that, indeed, blood is thicker than milk, as well as thicker than water.

In popular culture

More recently, Aldous Huxley's Ninth Philosopher's Song (1920) approached the proverb differently, stating, "Blood, as all men know, than water's thicker / But water's wider, thank the Lord, than blood."

"Blood is thicker than water" is:

• the title of a series of mixtapes by Nu Jerzey Devil, The Game, Black Wall Street Records, Dipset and Lil Wayne, produced by DJ Haze.
• a song title by Impaled Nazarene, off the 1994 album Suomi Finland Perkele.
• a book by W. A. Hoffman, now out of print.
• tattooed on the forearm of NBA player Trevor Ariza, dedicated to his little brother who fell out of a window when he was 6 years old.

"Thicker than water" is:

• the name of a 1997 album and song by H₂O
• a tattoo that M. Shadows of Avenged Sevenfold has across his chest.
• the name of a tattoo studio at 181 Avenue B in New York City.
• the English translation of the name of a 2014 Swedish TV show, Tjockare än vatten.
• the title of the 8th episode of the American TV series Under the Dome.

See also

• Appeal to loyalty
• Loyalty
• Blood viscosity
• List of English-language idioms

External links

• "Blood is thicker than water" on The Phrase Finder
• Thicker Than Water at TV Tropes