<B>The British Council's language Clinic with "Dr Danny"

Hello and welcome to the English Language Clinic. This week, I have been asked whether the expression ?bite the dust? is ?good English?. This idiom, meaning ?to die?, can be traced back to around 1750. It is an example of a euphemism, a word or expression used in order to avoid a potentially embarrassing or upsetting alternative. Other euphemisms for the verb ?to die? include ?to kick the bucket?, ?to shuffle off this mortal coil? (from Shakespeare?s play, Hamlet) and ?to pass away?. A very similar expression, ?to lick the dust? appears in the Bible, in Psalms 72. Even further back, the expression can be found in Homer?s poem ?The Iliad?, although only as the product of a 19th century translation from the original Greek.

The word ?bite? appears in a large number of idioms; ?to bite off more than you can chew? is to try to do more than you are able to. ?To bite your tongue? is to stop yourself saying something, and ?to bite the hand that feeds? is to hurt someone who is helping you.

?To bite the bullet? is to accept bad news or difficult situations without complaining. This expression owes its origins to the 1700?s, military custom of placing a bullet between the teeth of a patient during an operation, such as an amputation, to stop them screaming! To ?bite someone?s head off? means to ?verbally assault? them; to scream and shout at them.

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