Dub equivalent of "One hand washes the other"

Phil K

Is there a Dub equivalent for the phrase "One hand washes the other"? I've heard it mainly used in America to mean reciprocity.

AnonoBoy

Phil K wrote: »

Is there a Dub equivalent for the phrase "One hand washes the other"? I've heard it mainly used in America to mean reciprocity.

You scratch my back and I'll scratch yours?

Degsy

I'll look after you.

dubtom

What comes around goes around.

Hermy

Little apples grow again???

bealbocht

I though this was

"Vote Fianna Fail"..

Phil K

I was thinking more something meaning "Community is based on reciprocal care for each other" than the more mercenary "I'll scratch your back etc.." (and all its political implications)

MementoMori

Phil K wrote: »

I was thinking more something meaning "Community is based on reciprocal care for each other" than the more mercenary "I'll scratch your back etc.." (and all its political implications)

I would have always assumed "one hand washes the other" was more connected with the more negative mercenary meaning, and have never really heard it used in the more positive "Community is based on reciprocal care for each other" sense.

I had a notion that one hand washes the other was possibly originally an Italian phrase as I would associate it quite strongly with the Mafia {I have a clear recollection of it being used in either a Mafia film or TV programme (most likely TV programme would be The Sopranos)} However some research shows that is looks to have originated with the Ancient Greeks.

http://www.answers.com/topic/one-hand-washes-the-other

Interestingly on the first page of search results that came up in Google there was an article which used the phrase one hand washes the other in the title and then closes using the phrase "scratch my back and I'll scratch yours"

What's the big deal? Bankers scratch uncle Larry's back, he scratches theirs...

http://firelarrysummersnow.blogspot.com/2009/02/one-hand-washes-other-eh-larry.html

As per the discussion below, I think overall it's ambiguous as to whether "one hand washes the other" is a phrase with negative or positive associations. I had never heard the longer version with the ending "and together they wash the face." which to my mind would be a more positive phrase than the shortened version.

Is "one hand washes the other" equal to "you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours"?

I've always heard the first one in a longer form.
One hand washes the other, and together they wash the face. = Cooperation leads to accomplishment.
You scratch my back and I'll scratch yours. = I'll do a favor for you if you reciprocate.

. It seems like you don't think they are the same. The first idiom seems to focus on cooperation and accomplishment whereas the second is conditional and no accomplishment is implied.

They are more alike if you use only the first part of the first one (about hands).When you think about the meaning of the full saying of the first one, the meanings are no longer so similar.

http://www.englishforums.com/English/OneHandWashesTheOther/gggjm/post.htm

To me the phrase "one hand washes the other" would have no positive conotations given I had never heard the longer version previously and as such I would say that "scratch my back and I'll scratch yours" would be the more accurate equivalent. Also based on my search it looks like the shortened version is more common and would nearly uniformly have negative conotations. Also I did come accross the use of "one hand washes the other" as a headline in an article in a Irish paper relating to the Church and State collusion in the Cloyne child abuse cases, so I would argue that the phrase would have negative connotations especially in an Irish context.

http://www.tribune.ie/article/2008/dec/21/cloyne-abuse-report-one-hand-washes-the-other/

As regards a phrase based more on the meaning of something related to "Community is based on reciprocal care for each other" , there is the notion of a niggle rattling around in my brain equivalent to this more positive interpretion of the longer phrase , but I just cant put my tongue on it right now. For some reason the shortened phrase "It takes a village" from the longer version version of "It takes a village to raise a child" keeps popping into my head, but I know that's not the phrase I'm trying to think of. If I do manage to pin down the phrase I'm trying to think of I will be sure to post it up asap.

Phil K

Thanks for all that MementoMori, the "It takes a village.." may help - it's for a tv script and needs to be colloquial enough to pass as something a native Dub would say but the more mercenary implication won't work.

My first memory of "One hand..." was entirely positive - from a short story by the Irish American poet and short story writer Thomas Lynch who based a whole story on it describing how a taciturn man starts turning up with food and the offer to do washing when his neighbour suffers a bereavement. When finally asked why, his laconic answer is "One hand washes the other". I've only ever thought it benign ever since though your mention of mafia has coloured that a bit.

WindSock

What about ' Sticking your neck out for each other'

Rashers

In the present economic climate it might mean, 'Robbing Peter to pay Paul'.

(That's an ould Dublin expression too.)

dubtom

Seeing as the OP's question has been answered I have to ask in realtion to MementorMori sig Half of all people are of less than average intelligenceWhich half?

MementoMori

dubtom wrote: »

Seeing as the OP's question has been answered I have to ask in realtion to MementorMori sig Half of all people are of less than average intelligenceWhich half?

The signature doesn't specify which half.

It's basically to do with the fact that in any reasonably sized population half of all people will fall below average. It's also a reminder that there are a whole lot of morons out there.

wow sierra

As Gaeilge: Ar scáth a chéile a mhaireann na daoine. (People live under one and others protection, people live in one another's shadow)

The literal meaning is "shadow" but it means more "protection" (like scáth fearthainne - umbrella, rain protection).

Basically: We all depend on each other.