Blood is thicker than water


Blood is thicker than water is a medieval proverb in English that means that familial bonds will always be stronger than bonds of friendship or love. The oldest record of this saying can be traced back in the 12th century in German.

History

The equivalent proverb in German, first appeared in a different form in the medieval German beast epic Reinhart Fuchs by Heinrich der Glîchezære. The 13th-century Heidelberg manuscript reads in part, "ouch hoer ich sagen, das sippe blůt von wazzere niht verdirbet". In English it reads, "I also hear it said, kin-blood is not spoiled by water." which may in part refer to distance not changing familial ties or duties, due to the high seas being tamed.
In 1412, the English priest John Lydgate observed in Troy Book, "For naturally blood will be of kind / Drawn-to blood, where he may it find."
By 1670, the modern version was included in John Ray's collected Proverbs, and later appeared in Scottish author John Moore's Zeluco "So you see there is little danger of my forgetting them, and far less blood relations; for surely blood is thicker than water.", Sir Walter Scott's novel Guy Mannering : "Weel — Blud's thicker than water — she's welcome to the cheeses." and in English reformer Thomas Hughes's Tom Brown's School Days.
The phrase was first attested in the United States in the Journal of Athabasca Department." On June 25, 1859, U.S. Navy Commodore Josiah Tattnall, in command of the U.S. Squadron in Far Eastern waters, made this adage a part of U.S. history when explaining why he had given aid to the British squadron in an attack on Taku Forts at the mouth of the Pei Ho River, thereby abandoning the strict American policy of neutrality that had been adopted in the Second Opium War after the Battle of the Barrier Forts.

Other interpretations

The use of the word "blood" to refer to kin or familial relations has roots dating back to Greek and Roman traditions. This usage of the term was seen in the English-speaking world from the late 1300s.
Although not specifically related to the expression, H.C. Trumbull notes an interesting comparison of blood and milk in the Arab world:
More recently, Aldous Huxley's Ninth Philosopher's Song approached the proverb differently, stating, "Blood, as all men know, than water's thicker / But water's wider, thank the Lord, than blood."
Two modern commentators, authors Albert Jack and R. Richard Pustelniak, claim the original meaning of the expression was that the ties between people who have made a blood covenant were stronger than ties formed by "the water of the womb", thus "The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb."