"Biting the big one"

[Mark Mandel]

My experience with this expression matches Dave's description. I have no
military experience.

On Mon, Oct 6, 2008 at 12:52 PM, Dave Wilton <dave at wilton.net> wrote:

> HDAS has "bite the big one" as student slang ("esp. juvenile", early cites
> mainly from student sources), with citations from 1977. I never particularly
> associated the phrase with the military. (I served in the '80s.) That's not
> to say, of course, that the term wasn't in earlier use in the military.
>
> And I don't think that it has come to mean specifically to die. It still
> means a very unfortunate occurrence. In some contexts this could involve
> death, but not necessarily so.
>

--
Mark Mandel

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org