English Explanatory Dictionary

what's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander

English dictionary entry

Meanings

proverb
  1. If something is acceptable for one person, it is acceptable for another (often of the opposite gender).
  2. One who treats others in a certain way should not complain about receiving the same treatment.

Word forms

what's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander

Etymology

1670s, figuratively using goose/gander for women and men, and literally meaning that the same sauce applies equally well to cooked goose, regardless of sex. Early forms include “as deep drinketh the goose as the gander” (1562) and similar “As well for the coowe calfe as for the bull” (1549). The expression appears in Dickens when a spy attempting to evade culpability insists, “For you cannot sarse the goose and not the gander.”

Synonyms

turnabout is fair play

Antonyms

quod licet Iovi, non licet bovi

Derived words

what's good for the goose is good for the gander sauce for the goose
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