# What does "mano a mano" mean? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [March 22, 2014, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-mano-a-mano-mean/685174 "2014-03-22T23:28:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2014, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-mano-a-mano-mean/685174/21 "2014-04-08T03:11:10Z")
> [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](#): > > I’m willing to bet that most Americans believe it comes from the Spanish, and often phrase it as “mano-y-mano”…or is that correct in Spanish, after all? As the column says, it is Spanish for “hand to hand.” _Mano y mano_ is “hand and hand,” and does not have the same meaning. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2014, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-mano-a-mano-mean/685174/22 "2014-04-08T03:53:50Z")
We need a head-banging-wall emoticon. Mano a mano, as used commonly in US colloqial speech: from the Spanish for “hand to hand”, which is often used figuratively to mean “one on one”, single contest, as in **qazwart** ’s example, where I do my thing then you try to match it or best it. I can see how the idiom could be stretched to **Marks** ’ meaning of tit for tat, but I’d not heard it that way. As a side note, in the Spanish usage at least here in Puerto Rico, what in English is described as “hand-to-hand combat” is referred to as " combate cuerpo a cuerpo", that is, body-to-body. While “hombre a hombre” (man to man) is used to refer to the expression of direct honest interaction demanding mutual respect, as in a man-to-man talk. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2014, 8:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-mano-a-mano-mean/685174/23 "2014-04-23T08:53:16Z")
> [@oogabooga](#): > > It’s latin, of course. It just sounds like italian. > Literally: “Man on Man”. As in (to the yanks) “Lets take this outside” Somebody hold my coat. And the related You’re lucky my chick’s here. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Angel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d26b3c/32.png) [@Johnny\_Angel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Angel)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2014, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-mano-a-mano-mean/685174/24 "2014-04-25T06:08:34Z")
> [@eastcheap](#): > > And is a _whole_ lot easier to enunciate than _hombre a hombre._ > > If you wanted man-to-man in Latin, I suppose it would be something like _homo ad hominem,_ which probably leaves something to be desired in terms of modern colloquial English. In Latin the term is [_comminus or cōminus_](http://logeion.uchicago.edu/index.html#comminus) . ---
**Author:** ![Loopus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loopus/32/15343_2.png) [@Loopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loopus)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2014, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-mano-a-mano-mean/685174/25 "2014-04-26T01:36:22Z")
> [@qazwart](#): > > Nope it’s either Spanish or Portuguese. and means “Hand to Hand” Not Portguese. The Portuguese word for “hand” is “mão.” “Mano” in Portuguese is a slang term meaning “bro,” or “pal,” or “man” as in, “Yo man, what’s up?” So “mano a mano” in Portuguese would be “bro to bro.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-mano-a-mano-mean/685174.md?page=1)