Re: Bite your toung

Posted by Gary on January 13, 2004

In Reply to: Re: Bite your toung posted by Sax's mom on January 13, 2004

: : : HI, can you please help me find the meaning and orlgin of this phrase.

: : Bite your tongue. It means keep quiet. Don't say anything.

: Can you tell us how this phrase originated?

It sounds very 'Bible or Shakespeare'. Can't find it in the Bible. It does come up in Shakespeare in King Henry IV:

So York must sit and fret and bite his tongue,
While his own lands are bargain'd for and sold.

Shakespeare was very fond of the word tongue; it appears hundreds of times in his plays. Incidentally, he never used the word Bible.

• Re: Bite your tongue ESC 13/January/04
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