"A taste of your own medicine"

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Why is it that when people get revenge on someone, they sometimes say, "That'll give then a taste of their own medicine."?

That phrase doesn't make sense to me!

I mean, if it's your medicine, and it's prescribed to you, aren't you supposed to take it? You're not supposed to be taking anyone else's medication, right?


Another phrase I hate is "You can't have your cake and eat it too."
I recently learned the meaning of the phrase however. As it is currently worded, it does not make sense. But then if you switch it around to "You cannot eat your cake and then expect it to still be perfectly intact on its plate," then that makes perfect sense!

I think that goes back to when doctors made medicines that tasted disgusting--so "your medicine" might be "the medicine you made" rather than "the medicine that was prescribed to you". So forcing a doctor to taste his own medicine is a way of getting him to experience what he made you taste. It refers to either revenge directly, or else in general to somebody experiencing something he has the habit of inflicting on others; for example, a traffic cop getting a ticket.

Oh, okay then, so that makes perfect sense. It's just so darn vague, though.

You know, perusing through this site, it helps me realize just how far I've come since I was 7 or 8. It's easy for me to forget I used to think like this. Now this stuff almost never confuses me. Oh well.

I love seeing how different phrases, traditions, and fashions are born in the first place.

It's like a counter-attack.

Also, what good is cake if you can't eat it?

I never understood the second phrase. I have never heard it in real life, only online.

The term is so overused... I like the term "what goes around comes around" much better.

Which term? The first or the second one?