Common Misunderstandings: Mano a Mano
by
William Womack, April 5th, 2008
Technically, this isn’t a quirk of English, but of English speakers misunderstanding a Spanish phrase. “Let’s settle this right now, pardner, mano a mano.” You can see the tumbleweeds, hear the keening of the vultures circling overhead. An empty street, save for two gunfighters, hands poised at the ready…
Man to man, right? Not exactly, although that’s the nearly universal mis-translation. The literal meaning is “hand to hand”, as in hand-to-hand combat—two people, who needn’t be men, matching wits. According to Wikipedia, the phrase originally referred to a pair of bullfighters trying to outdo one another in the ring. So there you have it, a unisex phrase describing any two people who are locked in an interpersonal contest of some sort.
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Hall & Oates had a song called “Mano a Mano” on their album “Private Eyes” back in the 80s. Decent song, really good band.
I saw ‘em as a youngster, at a charity concert in Memphis. Three bucks a ticket, stripped down stage, no lighting. They kicked butt! G.E. Smith, the pint-sized showboat who fronted the Saturday Night Live band was part of their ensemble, and made a show of tossing his guitar into the air during solos. Crazy.
Really? This is now going to drive me crazy every time I hear it. Sort of like the mis-translation of Oh La La, where people use it like the phrase hubba-hubba, when it’s actually used as an exclamation when something bad has happened. French Person 1: I fell and sprained my ankle. French Person 2: oh la la