I hear this all the time in sports and entertainment. “They went at it mano y mano (hand and hand.)” Shouldn’t it be mano a mano (hand to hand, as in combat)? “Hand and hand” sounds like cooperation or even romance, not battle.
Which people? I’ve never heard anyone say “mano y mano.”
I’ve heard it plenty of times. It’s simply people making and perpetuating a mistake, I guess. Sort of like how people say “I can care less” when they mean exactly the opposite.
Same here.
Can’t say I’ve ever heard it said “mano y mano” on television progs and films we get down here from the States.
bump.
Why do they say mano a mano when they mean man to man?
Unless you’re ironic like me.
Never heard it as “mano y mano,” either.
Could be worse. They could be saying “mano en mano.”
“mano a mano” means hand to hand [combat]
“mano y mano” means hand and hand
Which give us:
This drives me up a wall and down the other side! When I hear it on the radio or TV, I’m compelled to scream back. Stoopit people! :mad:
RIght up there with “different than” rather than “different from.”
Lt. Howard Hunter on *Hill Street Blues * used to do that.
It’s just one of those expressions using the rhetorical device when part of something represents the whole (can’t remember the name of the term right now). It implies fist fighting, but can also a more combative way of saying “man to man.”
I think you’re giving most people who use it that way too much credit. What’s a typical way of Spanishizing a word? Adding an O to the end. I am pretty sure most of the people I’ve met who used “mano a mano” to use “man to man” do so becausue they think that it’s the actual Spanish translation.
Here’s an example from a Las Vegas Review-Journal headline: “Mano y mano stare-downs all about getting Tough Tony to blink first”. It was one of the first hits I got when googling “mano y mano.”
Like the OP, I hear it pretty frequently.
So you’re saying that the correct expression is “mana y mana?”
Great!!! Two Maná concerts at the price of one!
Maybe you’re kidding, but let me sort this just in case.
mano = hand
a = to
y = and
hombre (the “h” is silent) = man
hombre a hombre = man to man
mano a mano = hand to hand
mano y mano =hand and hand
I always thought it was one of those ever so clever ways of making fun of Mexicans… based on the genious linguistic theory of adding an “o” at the end of every word to make anything into Spanish… So, yes, that it would then mean “man to man”, rather than “hand to hand”.
Oh, and as to your actual question, in this theory, thy “y” is there for, well, authenticity, I suppose (which seems to be the big concern here).
Sad thing is, I think some people actually believe that’s how languages work. Ah, to have so simple a mind.
(IIRC) In “Robin Hood: Men in Tights,” the Sheriff of Rottingham (Roger Rees) says to Robin Hood (Cary Elwes) right before a big fight:
“…Mano y mano,
man to man,
just you and me and my –
GUARDS!!!”
…Or maybe I’m just remembering it that way in my head. Who has the movie and can verify?