Talk:Bite the bullet

Sepoy rebellion?

What about the claim that the expression originates with the refusal of Muslim Sepoys in India to bite cartridges coated with pork and beef fat in 1857? I don't have an encyclopaedic source for it, though. --Hugh7 (talk) 06:36, 22 August 2009 (UTC)

I too was educated (in England) that that was the main source of the expression, deriving from "bite the cartridge". Rather than describing physical suffering, it describes the mental anguish that one must suffer when being required to violate a deeply-held conviction or belief - as was the case in India. Likewise, I don't have a reference for it yet. AncientBrit (talk) 22:41, 13 September 2009 (UTC)

Me three :-) to 'Bite the bullet' is to take a tough decision, and I was always taught it was derived from the Indian 'Mutiny'. The Yowser (talk) 15:48, 26 March 2010 (UTC)

Plenty of evidence on the web that it was coined by Rudyard Kipling in 1891, 34 years after the Indian rebellion, and military websites and seem to prefer this meaning. From my perspective the lead bullet biting seems to be an explanation for the phrase worked out by Americans unfamiliar with our 'glorious imperial heritage'. The Yowser (talk) 16:11, 26 March 2010 (UTC)

References

Euthyphro dilemma

Can anyone justify the Euthyphro dilemma's explanation here? Not only is it not really a negative consequence of the philosophy, the dilemma is not resolved. The Euthyprho dilemma deals with the source of morality, the resolution here still posits an inherent "What is moral?" —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.246.116.3 (talk) 00:58, 9 October 2009 (UTC)

Image used

I see that we're using a modern jacketed bullet to illustrate the article. Would it be more appropriate to use a photo of period ammunition here? If a person were to bite that thing, it would break a tooth. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.17.199.113 (talk) 18:42, 21 February 2010 (UTC)

I have pictures from the War Between the States Museum of bitten cast lead bullets that would be better illustration than that shown in the article. Would like to upload it.

I can furnish pictures of bitten bullets from the Civil War. These were taken at the "War Between the States Musuem" in SC.Setterplace (talk) 09:07, 23 June 2011 (UTC)setterplace

Sounds great. As long as you took the photos yourself (sounds like that's what you meant), you can upload them to Wikimedia Commons at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:UploadWizard, and use the recommended licensing option (the one that says "(recommended)" in the drop-down menu). To make them show up in this article, insert the text "[[File:FILENAME|thumb|Write caption here]]", where FILENAME is whatever you named it. If you have any trouble, I can help out. If you get as far as uploading the images, I or anyone else could take care of any annoyances with the wikitext syntax. Regards, — ¾-10 03:58, 24 June 2011 (UTC)

From: https://www.civilwarvirtualmuseum.org/medicine/field-medicine/bitten-bullets.php

"A common myth from the Civil War is that bullets were used for patients to bite during surgery. On the contrary, both chloroform and ether were available for administration before surgery. These bullets clearly show indications of teeth marks; however, the marks were made by hogs foraging for food on a field after a battle." 81.109.84.66 (talk) 22:50, 8 January 2023 (UTC)

Dates to 1796?

This page cites Francis Grose's A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue as talking about "chew the bullet" in 1796: http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/bite-the-bullet.html

The 1811 version is online at http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/5402/pg5402.html; see the entry for NIGHTINGALE. — Preceding unsigned comment added by TerrificBowler (talk • contribs) 16:34, 24 June 2013 (UTC)