What have we stopped noticing?
The things we say, do, and accept without thinking twice.
Look closer where it comes from, what it assumes, and the case for keeping it
What you mean by it
To accept something unpleasant and get on with it.
What it's actually picturing
There are two stories. The popular one, that soldiers bit a bullet during surgery without anaesthetic, is widely repeated but has never been documented. The better-evidenced one is older. A 1796 slang dictionary describes soldiers chewing a bullet to stay silent while being flogged.
What it takes for granted
Endurance is pictured as silently absorbing pain.
Worth knowing
The 1796 dictionary is Francis Grose's. Sources disagree about the surgery story. Some lean toward it, others find no record of it. The figurative phrase first appears in Kipling, in 1891.
The case for keeping it
Whatever its origin, the phrase praises courage. There is little here to reconsider.
Say it plainly
Face itGet it over with
Or have some fun
Bite the broccoli
Where this comes from
- Bite the bullet · The Phrase Finder
- bullet · Online Etymology Dictionary