>>93913485The closest "original meaning" found is from Henry Clay Trumbell. Trumbell, in The Blood Covenant: A Primitive Rite and its Bearing on Scripture c. 1898, claims that the proverb comes from an older Arab one, which can be translated as, "Blood is thicker than milk," with milk referring to a mother's milk and blood referring to strong love between two people (not necessarily romantic love, of course). He notes that English interprets the phrase as "family blood" is thicker than water and that we've been doing it wrong. He does not say that the original phrase in English was, "The blood of the covenant is thicker..." I disagree with his assessment that just because the phrase might share its origin in the Arabic proverb, that it must also share its original meaning. I couldn't find whether or not the Arabic proverb is a true one, so I can't really say anything on that.
