It has been speculated to have evolved from the British expression "to bite the cartridge", which dates to the Indian Rebellion of 1857, but the phrase "chew a bullet", with a similar meaning, dates to at least 1796. Evidence for biting a bullet rather than a leather strap during surgery is sparse, although Harriet Tubman related having once assisted in a Civil War amputation in which the patient was given a bullet to bite down on. It has been suggested that it is derived historically from the practice of having a patient clench a bullet in their teeth as a way to cope with the pain of a surgical procedure without anesthetic. The phrase (as "bite on the bullet") was first recorded by Rudyard Kipling in his 1891 novel The Light that Failed. " Biting the bullet" is a metaphor which is used to describe a situation, often a debate, where one accepts an inevitable impending hardship or hard-to-refute point, and then endures the resulting pain with fortitude. For other uses, see Bite the bullet (disambiguation).
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |