Wayne from Wayland, Massachusetts, says a co-worker was fond of the saying One hand washes the other and both hands wash the face. The saying suggests that working together, two can accomplish what one can’t. It can also connote the idea of One good turn deserves another or I’ll scratch your back and you scratch mine, which can also imply the idea of graft and corruption. The saying goes back to ancient Rome, where Manus manum lavat literally meant “one hand washes the other,” and appears in The Satyricon by Petronius. (Bookshop|Amazon) This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “One Hand Washes the Other”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hi, this is Wayne from Wayland, Massachusetts.
Hi, Wayne. Welcome.
What can we do for you, Wayne?
I used to work on a construction job with a gentleman from Cuba, and he always had a saying that he would never explain to me. And the saying was, one hand washes the other, and both hands wash the face.
I’m familiar with the first half, but I had never heard the wash the face part. He wouldn’t explain it, but I think I know what he meant.
What was happening on the construction site when he would say this?
He was just generally just showing up. He wasn’t always on the site, and he would show up and use this saying.
Would he just say it out of the blue, or was there a particular kind of situation that would prompt him to say it?
No, it would kind of come out of the blue. But he would first say it in Spanish, and then he would translate it.
So what did you take it to mean? You said you knew the first part, the last part was a surprise, but you thought you had an idea of what that last part meant. What do you think he meant?
Well, the one hand washes the other. I always thought of, you help me, I help you kind of thing. So what I think he was saying was, I’ll help you, you help me, but we’re working for the boss, would be the thing.
Oh, yeah, that’s not a bad interpretation. So I didn’t know if it was just like a saying from Cuba or if it’s more common than that.
It’s bigger than that. Your interpretation is pretty good. That last part varies. The one hand washes the other goes back to ancient Greece, actually to about 500 B.C., believe it or not. In the writings of Epicarmus, who put it in there, one hand washes the other and the finger helps finger. Basically, the whole idea is you can’t help yourself. You need me to help you. But together, we can do things that we can’t do alone. And so I think your interpretation of together we work for the boss is a pretty good one. It’s certainly on a work site.
And interestingly, over the millennia, this phrase has kind of gone in two different directions depending on the time and the place and the culture. On one hand, it’s about neighborliness and friendliness. One hand washes the other might be, you know, mutual aid. It’s about today you, tomorrow me. It’s about our interdependence. But on the other hand, it can be about graft and corruption. And it can be kind of threatening. You know, I pay you a little bit of money. You give me what I want. I pay you under the table. You do this thing for me that you’re not supposed to do. It’s you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours. Or one good turn deserves another, which is kind of nearly always ironic. You know, the good turn is never really good, right? And one good turn deserves another.
Right.
So from the Greeks to the Romans, in Latin, it was manus manum lavat, which is the same thing. There’s a funny little bit, well, funny for the Romans. I don’t think they were that laugh out loud funny. But there’s a story by Petronius in his satiricon where somebody’s complaining about a very poor gladiator performance. And the gladiator says something like, well, at least I gave you a show. And someone replies, and I applauded, which is more than you did for me. One hand washes the other.
So it’s just kind of this whole idea, like, you do something half-hearted and I do something half-hearted back, you know. That’s, you know, you get exactly what you deserve when you do something poor, I do something poor in return. You do something great, I do something great in return.
I do appreciate that insight about your boss. I’m picturing literally, you know, the face being above the hands.
Mm, yeah. That could be applied otherwise.
Mm—
Well, that’s what we know, yeah. So it’s not just Cuba, and it’s not just that one man. It’s throughout European languages and cultures and probably the rest of the world.
All right. I had no idea how far that went back.
Way back.
Yeah.
Wayne, thank you so much for calling. We appreciate it.
Thank you for answering it.
All right. Take care.
Take care.
Bye.
Bye-bye.
