• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer
Zippy Facts Logo

Zippy Facts

Interesting Random Facts

  • Animals
  • Culture
  • Firsts
  • Food
  • Geography
  • Health
  • History
  • Inventions
  • Language
  • Mythology
  • Odds
  • People
  • Religion
  • Science
  • Space
  • Universe
  • World
You are here: Home / Language / What Does the Expression “Bite the Dust” Mean and Where Did the Idiom Come From?

What Does the Expression “Bite the Dust” Mean and Where Did the Idiom Come From?

March 6, 2020 by Karen Hill

We have probably all heard “bite the dust” for the first time while watching an old western B movie when a cowboy hero does away with a pesky varmint to impress the schoolmarm.

The phrase was first used in English literature in 1750 to imply wounding or killing by satirical novelist Tobias Smollett (1721-1771) in Adventures of Gil Blas of Santillane, his translation of the original French novel by Alain-Rene Lesage: “We made two of them bite the dust and the others betake themselves to flight.”

The inspiration for the expression can be traced back to the Bible in Psalm 72: “They that dwell in the wilderness shall bow before him and his enemies shall lick the dust.”

The word caucus, a closed meeting of a political party to decide on policy, comes from the Algonquin word caucauasu, which means “counsellor”.

The word toboggan is from the French Canadian tabagane, which is a translation of the Algonquin tobakun, meaning “sled”.

The word winnebago has the same aboriginal meaning as Winnipeg, the capital of Manitoba, and that both mean “dirty water.

The phrase “down the hatch” is a sailor’s drinking expression and refers to freight disappearing in volume through the hatch leading to the storage area below a ship’s deck.

The word queue is the only English word that is pronounced the same with or without its last four letters.

Related Facts

  • What does the phrase "to bite the dust" mean and Where does it come from?
  • What Does the Expression "Have Your Cake and Eat it Too" Mean and Where Did the Idiom Come From?
  • What Does the Expression "Straight and Narrow" Mean and Where Did the Idiom Come From?
  • Where Did the Expression "It's Raining Cats and Dogs" Come From and What Does the Idiom Mean?
  • What Does the Expression "For the Birds" Mean and Where Did the Idiom Come From?
  • What Does the Expression "Rob Peter to Pay Paul" Mean and Where did the Idiom Come From?
  • What Does the Expression "In the Nick of Time" Mean and Where Did the Idiom Come From?
  • What Does the Expression "Bottom of the Totem Pole" Mean and Where Did the Idiom Come From?
  • Where Did the Expression "Don't Shoot the Messenger" Come From and What Does the Idiom Mean?
  • Where Did the Expression "At the End of His Rope" Come From and What Does the Idiom Mean?
  • What Does the Expression "Clean Bill of Health" Mean and Where Did the Idiom Come From?
  • What Does the Expression "Read Between the Lines" Mean and Where Did the Idiom Come From?

Filed Under: Language

About Karen Hill

Karen Hill is a freelance writer, editor, and columnist. Born in New York, her work has appeared in the Examiner, Yahoo News, Buzzfeed, among others.

Previous Post: « What Is a Proverb, What Does the Word Mean, and How Did Proverbs Originate?
Next Post: Why Does the Word “Moron” Mean “Stupid” and Where Did the Word Come From? »

Footer

Follow

  • Facebook
  • Flickr
  • GitHub
  • Google+
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Medium
  • Pinterest
  • StumbleUpon
  • Tumblr
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Categories

Accomplishments Animals Culture Firsts Food Geography Health History Inventions Language Mythology Odds People Religion Science Space Universe World Your Body

About

Zippy Facts empowers the world by serving educational content that is accessible to everyone.

A tribute to growing up, zippyfacts.com showcases interesting and unusual facts about the world.

Our mission is to use technology to facilitate knowledge transfer and sharing.

Copyright © 2021 Zippy Facts

  • About Us
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy