Bite the bullet

This expression means to steel oneself to perform or finish a task, often unpleasant, that one may have been avoiding or putting off and this figurative meaning dates from the 19th century. The meaning of the expression is not the problem but the origin certainly is. The most commonly encountered origin is that wounded soldiers during the 18th/early 19th centuries were given a bullet to bite on while they underwent painful battlefield surgery. This would have been a musket ball because metal cartridge bullets had not been invented then. This scenario is most improbable. “Here. Chew on this musket ball (which one is more than likely to swallow) while I hack your leg off.” This is improbable when a piece of wood or a leather strap to bite on would be much more sensible. The OED opts out of the issue of origin and deals only with the current figurative meaning of the expression, which it attributes to Rudyard Kipling’s 1891 novel 'The Light that Failed'. There is little doubt that the original, literal expression is military language from the late 16th century. The cartridge bullet was introduced in 1586. It comprised the musket ball and the black powder charge wrapped in strong cartridge paper, from where the expression 'cartridge paper' is derived. The 'musketeer' would bite off the bullet with his teeth and, keeping the musket ball in his mouth, would put the rest of the cartridge down the muzzle. The musketeer would then add the musket ball, either spitting or placing it into the muzzle before ramming everything home with the ramrod. It seems a long tedious process but a well-trained soldier could get off three, sometimes four, rounds a minute. Biting the bullet, therefore, originally meant no more than getting ready for action, often unpleasant, but always necessary for a soldier. In military circles, the expression may have acquired a more figurative meaning before the OED’s citation of Kipling's usage in 1891. The military practice of biting the bullet sparked off the Indian Mutiny of 1857 when both Muslim and Hindu sepoys refused to bite the new cartridges issued for the 1853 Enfield rifle. The barrel of this new weapon was rifled, and the cartridges needed to be greased so that the charge could be rammed home more easily. The grease used was either lard (pig’s fat) or tallow (beef fat), both anathema of course to Muslims and Hindus.