Bite the grass

Biting the grass is a well-established phrase and a casual way of saying “to die ”. It is used especially with reference to soldiers who lose their lives in battle.

In English one says “ to bite the dust ” and in French it is called “ mordre la poussière ”, which means both to bite the dust .

The idea that dying warriors bite the earth has been documented since ancient times, for example in the Iliad (2, 418) and in the Aeneid (11, 418; 11, 668f.).

The phrase bite the grass occurs in German in the 17th century with the meaning "(in battle) to die". In 1663, Schottel called it a "common redart known to everyone".

Adelung also suspected a Middle High German "baißen" with the meaning "get off the horse" in the verb "bite ".

The American war film Hell Is for Heroes from 1962 ran under the German distribution title Die Bite zum Gras .

See also

• to die

Wiktionary: bite the grass  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

1. ^ Samuel Johann Ernst Stosch: Small contributions to closer knowledge of the German language , Volume 2, Berlin 1780, p. 79ff.
2. ↑ Duden 11, 1992, p. 273.
3. ↑ Iliad (2, 418): “Lying forward in the dust, bit the earth with a crunch!” Online
4. ↑ Aeneis (11, 668F.): "Spewing streams of blood falls from 'he and bites into the wet bottom and dying rolls around on one's own wound." Online
5. ↑ Johannes Bilger: Veredicus Germanus, der Teutsche Warsager , o. O. 1630, p. 50: "because Oberntraut / the noble skin / etc. ... bitten into the grass." Online
6. ↑ Justus Georg Schottel : Detailed work from the teutschen Haubt language , Braunschweig 1663, Lib. 5, p. 1225
7. ↑ Johann Christoph Adelung : Attempt of a complete grammatical-critical dictionary of the High German dialect , Vol. 1, Part 1, A – E, Leipzig 1774, Sp. 737