Phrase Origins: Bite the Bullet

Whenever I hear the phrase "bite the bullet," I think of the cartoons where a character actually bites a bullet. The character is usually nervous and there is usually something bad that is going to happen. At least, the character thinks something bad is going to happen. This makes sense since the phrase means to accept whatever happens (usually something that is not good) and to accept the pain that results from the situation without complaining.

However, I am not sure about how the phrase originated. My imagination makes me think that perhaps it was the trick where somebody is supposed to catch a bullet between the teeth and bite it. However, this wouldn't work and the bullet would end up shooting the face of that person or wherever it hit on the person after the person moved so the bullet would not be caught in the teeth. If the show business motto of "the show must go on" was followed, then the person would not complain and continue with the show if able or quietly be taken to a doctor or hospital.

It looks as though my theory is incorrect, but is just as plausible as other theories.

The main theory is that soldiers, when having an operation, were given a bullet to bite to make them forget the pain or at least to transfer the concentration away from the pain to biting down on a bullet. There would have been a risk of lead poisoning, but in the cases where the soldiers would have been given a bullet, lead poisoning would have been a secondary concern.

There's also the theory that during surgery, people were given a piece of wood on which to bite. This was called a billet and later people thought the word was bullet. There are no written records, even fictional, of people biting on pieces of wood during surgery.

There are no truthful records of people biting on bullets during surgery, either. However, the phrase does appear in an account from a Mr. Ferguson in Volume 1, Issue 1 of The West England Miscellany from 1844. The account given is, " The instant chance of being killed, in fact, and never more seeing Mrs. Ferguson, was eminently disagreeable to me. I shook a little, I confess, and bit the bullet-end of my cartridge, saying my prayers of course, the first time for ten years."

It is thought that this account is fictional and it also does not refer to allaying pain, but allaying fear.

However, some phrases move into the language even though they are fictional in origin. It seems that this may be the case for the origin of the phrase "bite the bullet."

In 1891, Rudyard Kipling wrote The Light that Failed . He included the passage, "Steady, Dickie, steady!' said the deep voice in his ear, and the grip tightened. 'Bite on the bullet, old man, and don't let them think you're afraid."

By 1926, the English upper class was using the phrase "bite the bullet." An example can be seen in the fictional novel, The Inimitable Jeeves from 1923 written by Bertie Wooster. He included the phrase in the passage, "Brace up and bite the bullet. I'm afraid I've bad news for you."

Source:

Martin, G. (n.d.). Bite the bullet. The meanings and origins of sayings and phrases . Retrieved April 21, 2011, from http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/bite-the-bullet.html