Skip to main content

Bite the bullet


A 1796 publication titled A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue by Francis Grose was a book of slang terms for the day and in it appeared the phrase bite the bullet. 
Nightingale. A soldier who, as the term is, sings out at the halberts. It is a point of honour in some regiments, among the grenadiers, never to cry out, or become nightingales, whilst under the discipline of the cat of nine tails; to avoid which, they chew a bullet.
But there are other theories, perhaps ones you have heard before, and you can read about them here

These days when we say bite the bullet we are saying that we or someone else needs to fortify self and prepare for the impending difficulty or pain that is coming. 








Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Call it a Day

The literal use of this phrase hails from 1838 when the phrase originally was "call it half a day" to mean leaving work early. (source) The modern use of the phrase is to indicate ending something due to false sense of accomplishment. 

More bang for your buck

This phrase was used a lot in 1953 but an earlier citation puts it at 1940 in a Metals and Plastics Publications advertisement. Read about it here . The phrase means you get more for your money.

Butter someone up

There are two probable origins for this idiom and I think both are equally plausible. The first one is that when you spread butter on bread you are buttering it up like one would do when trying to flatter someone. The second is in ancient India there was a practice of throwing balls of butter at statues to ask for favor, i.e. buttering them up. ( source ) When we use the phrase today we generally mean that extreme flattery is used to gain information or favor. It's not always necessarily a compliment.