it has been around much longer than 1980.
So I asked a couple of people what the phrase meant, and while most gave a correct definition, they were unable
to describe its origin.
"It's this huge kind of fall "you go down, in baseball, you strike out. They play it at Dodger games," said Ben Caplan,
a second- year undeclared social sciences student.
The phrase still has a similar meaning even outside of the context of baseball.
"You are getting close to dying, I believe. You are about to bite the dust, you are about to die" said Paulina Aguilar
a first - year biochemistry student.
Both Caplan and Aquilar's definitions of the phrase are pretty spot-on, "Bite the dust " is usually used to describe a
fall to the ground or someone's death and is more commonly associated with the death of a soldier in battle, but
it also has the more modern association with general failure.
There was more uncertainty as to the phrase's s origin:
Not just from the song sang by Queen, "bite the dust" has been around since the King James Bilble was published in
1611. According to the bible , ""They that dwell in the wilderness shall bow before Him; and His enemies shall
lick the dust". (Psalms 72.9). While "lick the dust" is a variation of the phrase we know today, it still contains the
similar meaning of falling to the ground in defeat.
One of the first uses of the phrase as we know it today was in Tobias Smollett's translated version of "The Adventures
of Gil Blas of Santillane," published in 1748, as it appeared in a quote; We made the two of them bite the dust, and
the others prepare themselves to fight."
But one of the more familiar associations is with Samuel Butler's translation of Homer's "The Illiad," as Butler uses
"bite the dust" to describe the death of Roman soldiers in battle. Probably the most recent uses of the phrase (not
counting the Queen song) occur in old Western films to describe fallen cowboys.
So from the Bible to Queen, "bite the dust" has been making a reputation for itself for more tha. 300 years.
With phrases that have histories like "bite the dust", it is a wonder that they are still in use today.
By Corinne Cunard- Dailybruin.com
Saatchi Art: Another One Bites The Dust by Tommy Lennartsson
http://www.973-eht-namuh-973.com/Alchem ... 20900.html