You'd be hard pushed to find someone who has never told a friend to 'bite the bullet' at one point or another.
Whether it's said when dishing out advice or dealing with an unpleasant job, the idiom is often used when people need to grit their teeth and get on with the task at hand.
But not everyone knows where the popular saying comes from. Although it's easy to work out the origin is probably unpleasant, it's still unnerving to learn the disturbing history behind the phrase.
So, where did it come from? There are a few grizzly theories as Reader's Digest previously uncovered.
It's commonly believed the idiom dates back to the time before the advent of anaesthetics, when soldiers needed a distraction during painful surgeries to treat their war wounds.
Not only did the bullet serve this function but it helped to stop the patients from screaming or biting their tongues.
Alternatively, the literary pros say it might come from the Indian Rebellion of 1857.
The experts explained: "The powder cartridge used for the rifles had a paper cartridge that needed to be bitten off by the soldier before they loaded it into their gun.
"When Sepoys—native Indian troops of Muslims and Hindus—heard the cartridges and bullets were greased with pork and beef fat, they refused to fight because it is against their religion to ingest cow fat.
"Therefore if they 'bit the bullet' they would be doing something they weren’t comfortable with."
As to when it was first used in writing, it is hard to say. But the first known recording of the phrase comes from Rudyard Kipling's 1891 book, The Light That Failed.
Elsewhere, history lovers were shocked to discover not all street bollards were designed for their current purpose. It turns out some of the fixtures used to be cannons but were stolen from ships after war victories.
Historian Alice Loxton explained all in a video devoted to the topic.
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