"wash your hands" and "wash the hands" difference [closed]

Solution 1:

It's possible to wash someone else's hands or face (parents do this with young children), brush someone else's hair (hairdressers do this), and brush someone else's teeth (dental hygienists sort of do this). So we use "your" to indicate that the person is doing it to themself.

We can use "the" when referring to the activity in general. For instance, during the Seder (the Jewish Passover meal that contains many rituals), one of the steps is called "washing of the hands", during which the all the participants (or just the leader in less strict sects) each wash their hands.

It's even more common to refer to the activity in general without any article:

Brushing teeth is important for dental hygiene.

Washing hands frequently helps avoid the spread of disease.

Solution 2:

For English speakers today, there's no particular reason for it. I say "wash your hands" because my mother says "wash your hands," and she says "wash your hands" because her mother said "wash your hands."

(I'm using a figure of speech; what I really mean is that I say "wash your hands" because when I was growing up, the people around me all said "wash your hands"; and they said it because that's what people said when they were growing up.)

It would be interesting to see how English got that way in the first place—how did people say "wash your hands" in Old English? However, I wasn't able to find any information about that.