"give a dog a bad name and hang him"

Question

Hi all,

Is there any Spanish equivalent to the English saying "give a dog a bad name and hang him" meaning "a person's plight is hopeless once his reputation has been blackened"?

I'm writing a vocabulary book including such expressions in English, French, Greek, Italian, Turkish, German, and I would like to include Spanish ... However, my Spanish is very bad and while I can find separate words easily enough, I can't come up by myself with correct equivalents for set phrases, proverbs, sayings, etc ... I don't want to write anything inaccurate or blatantly wrong, that's why I'm asking you guys

Thanks a lot for your help,

Carole

Answer 1

give a dog a bad name and hang him I've never heard that before but I searched and found: por un perro que maté, mataperros me llamaron....

Thanks Margaret. This one seems to correspond most with the meaning of the English saying. - CaroleAR, Nov 12, 2010

Answer 2

I'm fairly familiar with slang and I've never heard this expression used either 1) in America or 2) by a live human being. Maybe some of our British members can weigh in as to if it's still used over there.

However, I think that what you may actually be looking for can be found in our phrasebook....10,000+ common English phrases/idioms with their Spanish equivilancies. You obviously sound like you enjoy languages. Perhaps you'd like to spend some time with us and learn Spanish.

All the best on your project.

great answer:) - 00494d19, Nov 12, 2010

I might just do that (learn Spanish) :-) Thanks for your answer! - CaroleAR, Nov 12, 2010

Answer 3

I am thinking of something similiar...

"cuando el río suena...."

meaning, if you hear something bad about somebody, there is most likely something to it.

Wait for more answers.

That would be 'where there's smoke there's fire'. - margaretbl, Nov 12, 2010

Answer 4

There is a discussion here that shows some sayings mean different things in diferent regions--in this case, the opposite.

Yes, I had a look at it. It's quite confusing ... Thanks for the link :-) - CaroleAR, Nov 12, 2010

Answer 5

probably,

házte fama y échate a dormir.

Answer 6

Do people still use that expression? The last time I saw it was while reading Dickens in high school and I have never heard anyone say it. "Give a bad name" is still common, however.