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

English

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.”

Proverb

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

1. If something is acceptable for one person, it is acceptable for another (often of the opposite gender).
   • [1674, Richard Head, The English Rogue, Part 3, page 4:

     […] sawce which is good for the Goose, I hope will be good for the Gander […]]

   • [1678, John Ray, Collection of English Proverbs, 2nd edition, Cambridge, page 48:

     That that's good sauce for a goose, is good for a gander.]

   • 1682, Thomas Otway, Venice Preserv’d, or, A Plot Discover’d. A Tragedy. […], London: […] Jos[eph] Hindmarsh […], →OCLC, Act V, scene [ii], page 61:

     [I]t is, as I may ſo ſay, a ſavvcy Plot: and vve all knovv, moſt Reverend Fathers, that vvhat is ſavvce for a Gooſe is ſavvce for a Gander: Therefore, I ſay, as thoſe bloud-thirſty Ganders of the conſpiracy vvould have deſtroyed us Geeſe of the Senate, let us make haſte to deſtroy them, ſo I humbly move for hanging— […]

   • 1945, Herbert Walter Fairman, “An Introduction to the Study of Ptolemaic Signs and Their Values”, in Le Bulletin de l’Institut Français d’Archéologie Orientale, volume 43, page 80:

     What is sauce for the gander is sauce for the goose and the arguments that he produces against my suggestion apply with double force to his.

2. One who treats others in a certain way should not complain about receiving the same treatment.

Synonyms

• turnabout is fair play

Antonyms

• quod licet Iovi, non licet bovi (“Gods may do what cattle may not”)

Derived terms

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

Descendants

• French: sauce bonne pour l’oie est bonne pour le jars

Translations

if something is acceptable for one person, it is acceptable for another

• Dutch: gelijke monniken, gelijke kappen
• Esperanto: saŭco por la anserino ankaŭ estas saŭco por la viransero
• Finnish: ei köyhänkään suu tuohesta ole
• French: sauce bonne pour l’oie est bonne pour le jars
• German: was dem einen recht ist, ist dem anderen billig
• Hungarian: ami jó az egyiknek, jó a másiknak is; ami nekem jó, legyen neked is jó
• Italian: quel che vale per l’uno vale anche per l’altro
• Portuguese: pau que dá em Chico, dá em Francisco
• Spanish: lo que es bueno para el pavo, es bueno para la pava
• Turkish: aynı tas aynı hamam (tr)

one who treats others in a certain way should not complain about receiving the same treatment

• Hungarian: ami az egyiknek szabad, (legyen) szabad a másiknak is