Vol. 06 · Misquoted ·Saying ·38 of 348
"Blood is thicker than water (meaning family over friends)."
They never said that.
What people say
"Blood is thicker than water (meaning family over friends)."
What was actually said
"The proverb appears in English from 1180 with the family meaning intact." Heinrich der Glîchezære, "Reinhart Fuchs" (c. 1180)
Why it stuck
A viral "original" — "The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb" — is a late-20th-century invention. No medieval source uses it.
The reverse-meaning version has been widely debunked by lexicographers.
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