My mom said this to me and apparently, I say this often to my children. Without a doubt, many other parents do the same when they need to let their young child, teen, or even older adult child know that they just need to “bite the bullet” and get and undesirable task over with! I even find myself talking out loud to just “bite the bullet” in an effort to sike myself up when I need to do something difficult, tedious or just simply don’t want to do…like clean the bathroom!
The funny part is that…once I do the dreaded activity, maybe after days or hours of procrastination, I have to laugh at myself when I realize it actually only took a few minutes of my time, it wasn’t as bad as I thought...or I feel a great sense of relief! Mom was spot on again!
I was thinking about this and figured the phrase came from a time of war. So, I googled it, and yes, the phrase seems to have originated and evolved from war times. It then evolved into the idiom we know today “bite the bullet”. The British expression "to bite the cartridge", dates back to the Indian Rebellion of 1857. The rebellion was sparked in part by a new type of rifle cartridge that was rumored to be greased with pig and cow fat, which was offensive to both Muslim and Hindu soldiers. Soldiers had to bite the cartridge open to use the rifle, and this became a symbol of enduring an unpleasant situation.
During the American Civil War, 1861-1865, when injured, a soldier needed to bite down on something, and bullets were in ample supply on the battlefield. Bullets have a core made of lead, a soft and malleable metal that can be scratched and bitten with relative ease. There is some controversy on whether this actually happened, as chloroform was available for anesthesia then. But most agree it may have been used sporadically.
The expression "chew a bullet", dates to at least 1796 and had a similar meaning. During the 18th century, the British Army whipped soldiers as a common practice to teach discipline and set an example to other soldiers. The soldiers would “chew a bullet” to endure it.
The phrase evolved to the meaning we understand now to take action to get the unavoidable done and over with.
So that’s today’s history lesson LOL! I was not intending to go there, but I found it interesting and wanted to share. I will probably never think of “bite the bullet” the same way, now that I know the origin of “bite the bullet” is much more tragic! But, with that being said, there are definitely some lessons to be learned and incorporated into our own lives by this phrase with a very stoic meaning behind it!
Marcus Aurelius: "If it's endurable, then endure it. Stop complaining."
Marcus Aurelius: "Concentrate on the task at hand and see it for what it is. If you can't accept it, get it out of the way so you can move on."
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