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  • Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Word Origins 40. The term for the word

  • origins today is bite the bullet. Okay. Let's take a look at the note here. If

  • someone has to bite the boy he or she has to accept something unpleasant. Yeah.

  • That's the way we often say it. Well, you don't have a choice. You're just going to

  • have to bite the bullet. All right. So let's take a look. Let's look at the notes here.

  • The origin of this phrase is believed to come from how they performed surgery in

  • former times during the 1800s. When it was so painful and the pain was almost

  • unbearable you know, like during surgeries of course.

  • During a surgery patients were advised to bite on a bullet. So they knew it was

  • going to be very painful. So they say here's a bullet and just bite on this hard. To

  • try to bear the pain (painful biting sounds ) Something like that. Okay. This was a way of enduring the

  • pain before anesthesia was commonly used. So of course luckily today we do have

  • and anesthesia. So we don't have to bite on bullets anymore. You know,

  • you know, at that time. So that's why bite the bullet means you just had

  • to accept it. You just had to do it. At that time, they had no... you know magic little

  • potion or this magic drug that took the pain away. So then they really just had

  • to bite on the bullet to try to bear the pain. So that's where it really came from.

  • I mean sometimes you wonder well why did they say bite the bullet ? Why would

  • somebody want to bite a bullet ? All right. Well, now you know. All right and here's

  • just an example of how you know we would use it today in a common way. I don't

  • think there's much you can do the boss has made his decision. You're just going

  • to have to bite the bullet on this one. Meaning you just have to accept it. You can't

  • get out of it. That's kind of final. You're going to have to bite the bullet on

  • it. Just have to accept it the way it is. So that's what we mean by to bite the

  • bullet. Just like in former times, when you're

  • having a search for it. Yeah there was no other way to deal with the pain and

  • maybe you really needed surgery. You just had to bite the bullet. Anyway, I hope you

  • got it. I hope it's clear. Thank you for your time. Bye-bye.

Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Word Origins 40. The term for the word

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