View source for Cutting off one's nose to spite one's face

{{Verbatim title}}{{Short description|Idiom about self-destructive behavior}}
{{Wiktionary|cut off one's nose to spite one's face}}

"'''Cutting off one's nose to spite one's face'''" is an English-language idiom, used to describe an irrationally self-destructive act taken in pursuit of [[revenge]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Cut off your nose to spite your face definition and meaning {{!}} Collins English Dictionary |url=https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/cut-off-your-nose-to-spite-your-face |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20230221122228/https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/cut-off-your-nose-to-spite-your-face |archive-date=2023-02-21 |access-date=2025-06-16 |website=www.collinsdictionary.com |language=en}}</ref> The phrase often takes the form of the [[proverb]] "Don't cut off your nose to spite your face".<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Speake |first=Jennifer |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GtBxCgAAQBAJ&dq=nose+spite+face&pg=PA66 |title=The Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs |date=2015 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-873490-1 |language=en}}</ref>

An early record of this phrase appears in the 12th century writings of [[Peter of Blois]], who referred to it as a "common saying" (''Proverbium vulgare'') and recorded it as: "He who cuts off his nose takes poor revenge for a shame inflicted on him." (''Male ulciscitur dedecus sibi illatum, qui amputat nasum suum.'')<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last1=Peter |first1=of Blois |url=http://archive.org/details/petriblesensisba02pete |title=Petri Blesensis Bathoniensis archidiaconi opera omnia: nunc primum in Anglia ope codicum manuscriptorum editionumque optimarum |last2=Giles |first2=J. A. (John Allen) |date=1847 |publisher=Oxonii : I.H. Parker |others=PIMS – University of Toronto |page=vii}}</ref>

== Modern use and examples ==

=== Popular culture ===
[[Taylor Swift]]'s 2019 single, [[The Archer (song)|"The Archer"]], provides a straightforward example of the phrase:<blockquote>"I cut off my nose just to spite my face / And I hate my reflection for years and years."<ref>{{Cite web |last=Gaca |first=Anna |title=Taylor Swift: Lover |url=https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/taylor-swift-lover/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190826051751/https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/taylor-swift-lover/ |archive-date=August 26, 2019 |access-date=2025-06-17 |website=Pitchfork |language=en-US}}</ref></blockquote>An invocation of the idiom that emphasises the everyday character of spite which is quickly regretted appears in [[Seamus Heaney]]'s 1966 poem, "Gravities":<blockquote>"Lovers with barrages of hot insult / Often cut off their nose to spite their face, / Endure a hopeless day, declare their guilt, / Re-enter the native port of their embrace."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Heaney |first=Seamus |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lHMUBXRhp7kC |title=Death of a Naturalist |date=2009-02-19 |publisher=Faber & Faber |isbn=978-0-571-25073-8 |language=en}}</ref></blockquote>

=== Political and economic analysis ===
In modern times, the idiom is often used in political and economic commentary to describe actions by a political actor, party, corporation or nation that appear (at least to some) to damage the actor's own interests in pursuit of harming an adversary.

Examples of events the phrase has been used to describe include [[Tariffs in the second Trump administration|the tariff policies of the second Trump administration]],<ref>{{Cite news |date=2025-02-11 |title=Trump Tariffs Live Updates: US imposes 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum 'without exceptions or exemptions' |url=https://www.reuters.com/world/us/tariffs-updates-trump-set-out-new-metals-tariffs-2025-02-10/ |access-date=2025-06-17 |work=Reuters |language=en |quote=You can't cut your nose off to spite your face. We can't produce enough aluminum in the U.S. to meet half of our demand right now.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Putting Tariffs on Your Nose to Spite Your Face |url=https://jacobin.com/2025/04/trump-tariffs-china-doge-brics |access-date=2025-06-17 |website=jacobin.com |language=en-US}}</ref> the willingness of [[British Airways]] to allow the 2019 pilots' strike to run on instead of settling quickly, incurring greater costs to the business as a result,<ref>{{Cite news |last=Vincent |first=Matthew |date=2019-09-26 |title=British Airways owner is cutting off its nose to spite its face |url=https://www.ft.com/content/0aab28fa-e051-11e9-9743-db5a370481bc |access-date=2025-06-17 |work=Financial Times}}</ref> and [[Theresa May]]'s plans during [[Second May ministry|her second ministry]] to withdraw the UK from the [[Euratom|European Atomic Energy Community]].<ref>{{Cite news |last=Mason |first=Rowena |date=2017-07-12 |title=May warned not to 'cut off nose to spite face' as Tories revolt over Euratom |url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/jul/12/may-warned-not-to-cut-off-nose-to-spite-face-as-tories-revolt-over-euratom |access-date=2025-06-17 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077 |quote=Bob Neill, a former Tory housing minister, warned the government against "cutting off your economic and scientific nose to spite your political face".}}</ref> Because the idiom is necessarily used to admonish conduct or warn against a course of action, it is unlikely to be used in neutral reporting, and whether any given action properly meets the standard of irrational self-destruction is a matter of debate.

=== Scientific study of behaviour ===
In the field of game theory, the [[ultimatum game]] consists of two players – the proposer and the responder – deciding how to split a sum of money (e.g. 10 dollars). The proposer can offer any split they like, but if the responder rejects the offer, neither player receives any money. From a purely rational point of view, [[wiktionary:something is better than nothing#:~:text=Proverb&text=It is better to be,to have nothing at all.|the responder should ''never'' reject the proposer's offer]]. In practice, however, responders will typically punish proposers who make deals perceived to be unfair, even though this means walking away with nothing.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Gunschera |first1=L. J. |last2=Brazil |first2=I. A. |last3=Driessen |first3=J. M. A. |date=2022-12-01 |title=Social economic decision-making and psychopathy: A systematic review and meta-analysis |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0149763422004559 |journal=Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews |volume=143 |article-number=104966 |doi=10.1016/j.neubiorev.2022.104966 |issn=0149-7634|hdl=2066/284461 |hdl-access=free }}</ref> One explanation for this "irrationality" is that the sense of reward from punishing the proposer compensates for the loss of monetary gain.

Spite is also a studied concept in sociobiology, referring to social behaviours that harm both the subject and object of the action.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Forber |first1=Patrick |last2=Smead |first2=Rory |date=2014-04-07 |title=The evolution of fairness through spite |journal=Proceedings. Biological Sciences |volume=281 |issue=1780 |article-number=20132439 |doi=10.1098/rspb.2013.2439 |issn=1471-2954 |pmc=4027385 |pmid=24523265}}</ref> Evolutionary biologist [[W. D. Hamilton]] was interested in the restricted case where a spiteful behaviour evolved as such (instead of being an adaptive behaviour that delivered harm to a rival). He theorised the possible emergence of [[Hamiltonian spite|spiteful behaviour based on genetic relatedness]], though he noted that convincing examples of spite in this sense were hard to find.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hamilton |first=W. D. |date=1970 |title=Selfish and Spiteful Behaviour in an Evolutionary Model |url=https://www.nature.com/articles/2281218a0 |journal=Nature |language=en |volume=228 |issue=5277 |pages=1218–1220 |doi=10.1038/2281218a0 |pmid=4395095 |bibcode=1970Natur.228.1218H |issn=1476-4687|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

== History ==

=== Peter of Blois (12th century) ===
The earliest known record of the phrase appears in Peter of Blois's letter, "On the Pilgrimage to Jerusalem" (''De Hierosolymitana Peregrinatione''). Writing in Medieval Latin, he pleads with God not to punish Christian believers so harshly that he diminishes his own greatness in the eyes of nonbelievers:<blockquote>"We know that you are offended by our sins. But I beg you, do not turn your offence into reproach for your name&nbsp;... There's a common saying: 'He who cuts off his own nose takes poor revenge for a shame inflicted upon him.{{'"}}<ref name=":1" /></blockquote>[[Rhinotomy|Nose-cutting]] was a known punishment for treachery and adultery during the [[Middle Ages]], with the explicit purpose of permanently turning the victim's face into a sign of their lack of honour.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Skinner |first=Patricia |date=2014 |title=The Gendered Nose and its Lack: "Medieval" Nose-Cutting and its Modern Manifestations |journal=Journal of Women's History |volume=26 |issue=1 |pages=45–67 |doi=10.1353/jowh.2014.0008 |issn=1042-7961 |pmc=4001321 |pmid=24790391}}</ref>

=== Æbbe the Younger (13th century) ===
The legend of [[Æbbe the Younger|Saint Æbbe the Younger]] is sometimes suggested as the origin of the phrase,<ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-11-17 |title=Strange English phrases explained |url=https://www.pearson.com/languages/community/blogs/2023/11/more-english-phrases-explained.html |access-date=2025-06-17 |website=www.pearson.com |language=en}}</ref> though its theme and historical origin do not align with the idiom's meaning or origin. In the legend, first recorded by [[Matthew Paris]] in the 13th century, Æbbe and her nuns are said to have protected their virginity from Viking raiders by cutting off their noses:<blockquote>"that abbess of admirable courage, openly giving to all the sisters an example of chastity which should be profitable not only to those nuns, but which should be worthy of being followed by all succeeding virgins, and by all who should at any time exist, took a razor, and cut off her nose, and her upper lip close to the very teeth, and so made herself a shocking sight to all the bystander."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Paris |first=Matthew |url=http://archive.org/details/flowersofhistory01pariuoft |title=The flowers of History, especially such as relate to the affairs of Britain: from the beginning of the world to the year 1307 |date=1853 |publisher=London : H.G. Bohn |others=Robarts – University of Toronto}}</ref></blockquote>However, Paris frames this act as one of piety, not of spiteful self-destruction. In addition, this legend first appears several decades after Peter of Blois's own 12th century writings, by which time he was already able to refer to the idiom as a common saying.

=== Francis Grose (18th century) ===
In the 1788 edition of [[Francis Grose]]'s ''Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue'', "He cut off his nose to be revenged of his face" is said to apply to "one who, to be revenged on his neighbor, has materially injured himself."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Grose |first=Francis |url=http://archive.org/details/b2876190x |title=A classical dictionary of the vulgar tongue |date=1788 |publisher=London : Printed for S. Hooper |others=Wellcome Library}}</ref>

== See also ==
*[[Crab mentality]]
*[[Owning the libs]]
*[[Rhinotomy]]
*[[To bomb Voronezh]], an analogous Russian language idiom
*[[Ultimatum game]]

== References ==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:English-language idioms]]
[[Category:Proverbs]]