/lit/ - Literature

Could bite the bullet come from an era when bullets came wrapped in paper or cloth with their powder? I remember the French called it a cartouche so maybe they said bite the cartouche, which does mean bite the bullet, but it really means bite the paper covered package
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paper_cartridge

>>20081958
interesting general knowledge anon. colour me impressed

>>20081958
p[erhaps

>>20081942
Lead is soft.
https://allthingsliberty.com/2017/07/bite-bullet-impressive-collection-mohawk-valley-campaign/

Lead is very soft.
By very soft, I mean basically like a piece of hard chewing gum soft.
You can easily bend pure lead bars with your hands.
The standard way to cut the lead channels used for stained glass work is using a knife.
The way to straighten those channels, is to grab one end with pliers, and clamp the other end, and just pull.
Squirrels are known to chew thru lead roofing, because the lead builds ip an oxide layer that tastes sweet.

>>20082019
Perchance.

Screw the pooch

Some guy fucked a dog and it caused problems

>>20084007
you can't just say "Perchance"

black feet or patas negras in spanish.
Someone who has sex with someone who's already married.

The story says that one of the miners of Lota, once finishing the night shift and early in the morning when the boss was out, he went to fuck his wife. The other miners saw him and knew what was going on, and called him "patas negras" or black feet because of his coal-dirty feet.

>>20081942
Clutch / Clutching at straws / A drowning man clutches at straw. Used to denote that a desperate person will try anything to alleviate their situation. In this case holding onto straw while drowning. In my native Poland the idiom is slightly different, if not more brutal - A drowning man clutches at razor blades.
My personal favourite though which would translate into English very well is 'nie mòj cyrk, nie moje małpy' - not my circus, not my monkies. Used when something is not your problem.

>>20084101
Perhaps.

>>20081942
turning a new leaf
>Way back in the 16th century, pages in books were referred to as leaves. So tuning over a new leaf meant that one was turning to a blank page. This idiom was used to signify a major change in behavior, or a new stage in life.

>>20084320

>>20085666

>>20085666
new idiom, pouring oil
>In the 21st century apartment renters would deliberately pour oil into their drainage system despite the damage and costly repairs, because it 'wasnt their problem'. When someone is said to be 'pouring oil' they disregard the consequences of their actions because it isn't their problem.

>>20081942
not sure of any of their origins but:

running on empty

choking the chicken

whistling dixie

raining cats and dogs

pulling your leg

devil's advocate

lose your cool

heavy metal

when push comes to shove

hard of hearing

let the cat out of the bag

>>20084490
Mayhaps.

>>20085746
do the research then you lazy bastard

diamond dozing

>>20084320
>Used when something is not your problem.
oh, like ukrainia

Anglosphere: pins and needles
Everywhere else: AANTS!! I HAVE ANTS RUNNING ON ME!!

>it takes two to tango
The tango is a dance with two people

>>20085908
the trannies would say you can actually tango with one person and that the phrase "it take stwo to tango" is actually a hatecrime

One banana problem- a task that is super easy to solve whether through intelligence or strength or other means. Comes from it being so easy a monkey like op could do it.

Egg on your face- to look stupid. A possible origin is from people pelting bad theater workers with food. Or possibly when eating food at a social gathering and get egg on your face.

Mountain out of a molehill(many variations to this)-to make something (typically a problem) bigger than it actually is. First seen in a book by Nicholas Udall in 1548. Phrase can't be much older than that as mole wasn't a word until a few hundred years prior.

That dog don't hunt
idk my old, very Texan cross country coach used to say that whenever an idea was stupid or he didn't approve of it. He was a cool dude.

>>20081942
>lets have a cachita
It means lets fuck

Deader than canasta/as dead as canasta.

I like it because the card game canasta went out of fashion in the 1960s in America, and the idiom is almost as dead as its namesake.

>>20086346
Is it like a sandwich?

>>20085746
>running on empty
Running an engine needs fuel. See also: running on fumes.
>devil's advocate
The Catholic church holds a kind of trial to see if something is a miracle or if someone saw a miracle. They need someone to argue that it's not God's Grace, that it could be a natural phenomenon, or a devilish trick, and the person appointed to investigate the case against it being a miracle is the devil's advocate.