IdiomDaily Life
French
FrenchŒil pour œil, dent pour dent
Meaning: Retaliation exactly proportionate to the injury.
Literally: Eye for eye, tooth for tooth
Example: “Il a rayé ma voiture, alors j'ai crevé ses pneus : œil pour œil, dent pour dent.” — He scratched my car, so I slashed his tires: an eye for an eye.
English equivalent: An eye for an eye
Equivalents in other languages
English: an eye for an eye
Origin: From Exodus, and older still in the Code of Hammurabi. It was framed as a limit rather than a license — the punishment may go no further than the offense — which is the reading modern use tends to lose. The principle has a name of its own in French — la loi du talion, from Latin talio, retaliation in kind — and that is the term lawyers use.
More French idioms
- Un homme de paille A front man acting for someone who stays hidden.
- Envoyer paître To tell someone to get lost.
- La boîte de Pandore Something that releases a host of troubles once opened.
- Le dessus du panier The pick of the crop; the best of a group.
- Un panier percé Someone incapable of holding on to money.
- Le parcours du combattant A gruelling series of obstacles.
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