blood is thicker than water

blood is thicker than water

English

Pronunciation

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Proverb

blood is thicker than water

1. (family, idiomatic) Family relations and loyalties are stronger than relationships with people who are not family members.
   • 1865 May 15 – 1866 January 1, Anthony Trollope, “Mary Belton”, in The Belton Estate. […], volume III, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published December 1865 (indicated as 1866), OCLC 1041069398, page 201:

     It seems as though you had come to be so very near to us; and blood is thicker than water, is it not? If cousins are not friends, who can be?

   • c. 1915, Lucy Fitch Perkins, The Scotch Twins, ch. 5,

     The old clans are scattered now, but blood is thicker than water still, and you're welcome to the fireside of your kinsman!

Translations

relationships are stronger within the family

Albanian: s'bëhet gjaku ujë Arabic: please add this translation if you can Egyptian Arabic: الدم عُمره ما يبقى مَيَّة‎ Armenian: արյունը ջուր չի դառնա (aryunə ǰur čʿi daṙna) Bulgarian: кръвта вода не става (krǎvta voda ne stava) Chinese: Mandarin: 血濃於水／血浓于水 (zh) (xuènóngyúshuǐ) Czech: krev není voda Danish: blod er tykkere end vand Dutch: bloed is dikker dan water Finnish: veri on vettä sakeampaa (fi) French: bon sang ne peut mentir (fr); bon sang ne saurait mentir (fr); la voix du sang est la plus forte German: Blut ist dicker als Wasser (de) Greek: το αίμα νερό δεν γίνεται (to aíma neró den gínetai) Hungarian: a vér nem válik vízzé (hu) Irish: gach díograis go deireadh, is fearr beagán den ghaol ná mórán den charthanas Italian: il sangue non è acqua Japanese: 血は水よりも濃い (chi wa mizu yori mo koi) Korean: 피는 물보다 진하다 (ko) (pineun mulboda jinhada) Malay: air dicincang tidak akan putus Norwegian: Bokmål: blod er tykkere enn vann (no) Nynorsk: blod er tjukkare enn vatn Polish: krew nie woda Portuguese: o sangue é mais grosso que a água Romanian: sângele apă nu se face (blood does not become water) Russian: кровь — не води́ца (krovʹ — ne vodíca) (blood is not water), кровь людска́я — не води́ца (krovʹ ljudskája — ne vodíca) (people's blood is not water) Scottish Gaelic: is tighe fuil na bùrn Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: кр̑в није во̀да Roman: kȓv nije vòda Slovene: kri ni voda (blood is not water) Spanish: la sangre tira Swedish: blod är tjockare än vatten (sv) Thai: เลือดข้นกว่าน้ำ (th) (lêuat kôn gwàa nám) Vietnamese: một giọt máu đào hơn ao nước lã Welsh: gwaed yn dewach na dŵr

References

• Gregory Y. Titelman, Random House Dictionary of Popular Proverbs and Sayings, 1996, →ISBN, p. 32.