eye for an eye

English

Wikipedia

Etymology

A calque of Hebrew עין תחת עין (ayin tahat ayin), in reference to Exodus 21:23-25: "And if any mischief follow, then thou shalt give life for life, Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, Burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe" (King James Version).

Noun

eye for an eye

1. (idiomatic) compensation for injury caused by a person, in the form of inflicting of an identical injury on that person.

Synonyms

• tit for tat
• a Roland for an Oliver

Antonyms

• turn the other cheek

Translations

compensation for an injury

• Armenian: ակն ընդ ական (hy) (akn ënd akan)
• Danish: øje for øje (da)
• Dutch: oog om oog, tand om tand
• Esperanto: okulon pro okulo, denton pro dento (eo)
• Finnish: silmä silmästä
• French: œil pour œil, dent pour dent
• German: Auge um Auge (de)
• Hungarian: szemet szemért (hu)
• Italian: occhio per occhio

• Maltese: għajn għal għajn, sinna għal sinna
• Norwegian: øye for øye, tann for tann
• Old English: ēaġe for ēaġe
• Polish: oko za oko, ząb za ząb (pl)
• Russian: око за око, зуб за зуб (ru) (óko za óko, zub za zub)
• Serbo-Croatian: око за око, зуб за зуб (sh) (oko za oko, zub za zub)
• Spanish: ojo por ojo (es)
• Telugu: కంటికి కన్ను, పంటికి పన్ను (kaMTiki kannu, paMTiki pannu)

See also

• eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth