Definition
Compensation for injury caused by a person, in the form of inflicting an identical injury on that person.
Origins
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; spelling modernized).
Also Said As
Opposite In Meaning
See Also
- eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth
- an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind
- fight fire with fire
- internecine
- lex talionis
- mirror punishment
- mutual assured destruction
- race to the bottom
- two wrongs don't make a right
How People Actually Use It
If you're not an idiot, you'd know that "eye for an eye" means, if you fuck someone up, we'll fuck you up too. First coined by Hammurabi back in ancient Mesopotamia times, although I'm sure he didn't quite put it that way.
"When John Wilkes Booth shot Lincoln, then got killed in a barn in Virginia, that's an eye for an eye. When Nathan Gale shot that dimebag Darrel, then got tracked down and killed, that's an eye for an eye. When you give me AIDS after sex, then I track you down and stab the shit out of you, that's an eye for an eye."
Source: Urban Dictionary